Random Thoughts...

It is 42 (F) in my office this morning. TS, earlier in the winter, had recommended one of those portable heaters. A good suggestion, but I really don't mind the cold so much. I am just funny to look at in bundled in a blanket and my fingers protruding from a pair of gloves with cut-off fingers. (Besides, I don't think the electrical system can take any more appliances up here.) You see, only the downstairs was fixed for the central heat and AC in this house. The woodstove actually used to send up some good heat upstairs, but we had chimney fire last winter (another story) and we haven't got the chimney redone yet. Since the upstairs is basically an attic, we have window air conditioners for my office and (soon) the bedroom upstairs. When the printer in my office is going non-stop, you don't need heat up here. (Of course in the summer, the air conditioner can't keep up with the heat generated by the printer.)

Has anyone read "The Place Within-the poetry of Pope John Paul II"? Actually the title is misleading because all the poems in the collection were written before he became pope, that is, between 1939 and 1978. Some of the poems do not give the year written-which is unfortunate. I am not personally a great reader of poetry-I miss my days in college when for a short time (a semester or two) I learned how to read and appreciate good poetry. But as they say, if you don't use it.... In any event, early in this collection is a poem entitled: Shores of Silence. Here's are a couple pieces from it:

The distance shores of silence
begin at the door. You can not fly there
like a bird. You must stop, look deeper,
still deeper, until nothing
deflects the soul
from the utmost deep......

There, he is there. Only a tremor here,
only words retrieved from nothingness.
Oh-and a particle still remains
of that amazement which will become the essence
of eternity....

It seems to me, that he is talking about contemplative prayer-like that described in "The Cloud of Unkowing".