Category: friendship

The Bethany Sibs

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Discipleship, dying, Eternal Life, Faith, friendship, spirituality2 Comments

Memorial of Saints Martha, Mary, and Lazarus
July 29, 2026

Today, we pray with three fascinating friends of Jesus: Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. Let’s shake them out of the Bible today and let them live in our imaginations.

The three are usually named in the above order, inviting us to imagine Lazarus as the younger brother of two unmarried older sisters.

Martha, likely the oldest, is the most practical. Mary, the middle sister, is the romantic, wrapped in tales of perfumed hair, contemplative sitting, and tearful pleading. Lazarus, who has little to say in scripture, actually looms large in their story!

Thinking about the Bethany trio today, I remember a similar family from my childhood neighborhood. Helen, Agnes, and Mickey O’Rourke were amazingly like the Bethany Sibs in many ways. 

Helen, the oldest, had become a young and childless widow many years before I knew the family. By the 1950s, she was elderly, but still meticulously kept the home while the younger two worked. 

Agnes was about a decade younger and had a long career as a Bell Tell operator. She once spoke of wanting to become a Pink Sister, one of the Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters whose monastery stood not far from our neighborhood.

Mickey, in his 40s, was a police officer who was known to enjoy his bachelorhood.

The O’Rourkes were devoted to one another. When Agnes was widowed, the other two assumed loving responsibility for her. In turn, Agnes, always the most vigilant and practical of the three, undertook responsibility for their guidance. 

The three kept a hospitable home where neighbors enjoyed their easy camaraderie and delightful Irish wit. They shared a happy, supportive, and generous life.

Then Mickey was shot and killed by a drunken reveler on New Year’s Eve.

Think about the devastation in his sisters’ hearts. Think about the deadly silence that fell upon their joyful home.  Think about their neighbors’ fumbling efforts to offer help or hope.

It was into a grief like this that Jesus arrived one ancient afternoon in Bethany. Read about it in John, chapter 11.

Click for Scripture

This story offers so many points for meditation and prayer. You know where your heart softened at the story of the O’Rourkes. Maybe that is where your prayer should rest today as you ponder the Bethany family. 

  • Did Helen’s early widowhood touch your heart — her possible loneliness, blessedly softened only by the love of her siblings? Then pray with Martha.
  • Did Agnes’s quiet self-sacrifice move you — setting aside religious life to sustain her family? Then pray with Mary.
  • Did Mickey’s sudden death awaken memories of your own losses? Then pray with Lazarus.
  • Was it the shock and sadness of those who so helplessly wanted to heal the hurtful situation? Then pray with the unnamed neighbors whose remarks pepper the bible account.
  • But give these first prayers only short attention. Let your real meditation engage your feelings when you hear the words, “Lazarus, come forth!”, and you see the funeral bindings start to fall! Is there something dead in you that longs to rise again?

The O’Rourke sisters did not have their brother restored in the way that Lazarus was restored. But finally, their deep faith did revive their joy and unshakeable trust that they would all meet again in God’s time.

All these very real people offer us encouragement for our own faith and spiritual resilience. Why not spend some time with them?

Music: Come Out, Lazarus – Stephen McWhirter

Thanksgiving for Life and Friendship

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Creation, Faith, friendship, Hope, spirituality1 Comment

April 19, 2026

As in the prayer of petition, every event and need can become an offering of thanksgiving. The letters of St. Paul often begin and end with thanksgiving, and the Lord Jesus is always present in it: “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you”; “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”
~ from The Catechism of the Catholic church

In the 1980s, when we worked together at Misericordia Hospital, my friend Jude and I had an annual custom that we practiced for a few years. On each of our birthdays, we accompanied the other to the Free Library of Philadelphia, a magnificent Beaux-Arts building on Logan Circle, reminiscent of Place de Concorde in Paris. Both our birthdays occur in the early spring, so the trip was particularly lovely on the beautifully landscaped Ben Franklin Parkway.

Inside the vast building, we climbed the impressive marble staircase to the newspapers and microfiche center that used to be tucked in a balcony upstairs. Our objective was to find the newspaper of the celebrant’s actual birth day, and to marvel at the world in which our lives began.

I have often reflected on that delightful ritual and the multidimensional meaning it held for me.

  • It allowed me to see myself as a particular part of history – to recognize a past beginning, a present reality, and a future hope for my existence.
  • It gave me an awareness of the world my mother carried with her to the maternity ward, and into which she hopefully and protectively welcomed me.
  • It allowed me to honor time as an energy that offers not only unsolicited change, but the opportunity for chosen growth and depth.
  • It reinforced the mutuality Jude and I shared in being grateful for one another’s birth and friendship.

Of course, a birthday requires a bit more frivolity in celebration, so there was a second essential part to our annual outing.  We finished up the day by going “all-Philly” at the renowned Reading Terminal Market with a stop at some of our favorite vendors: Pearl’s Oyster Bar, Bassett’s Ice Cream, Termini’s Bakery, or a Pennsylvania Dutch pretzel and a Yuengling beer.

One’s birthday is a sacred juncture in the long unfolding of time. It is the moment when God imagined us and the power of our lives into being – the moment when God’s hope was given our face, our soul. It is a miracle that summons humble awe and reflective gratitude.

Psalm 139 offers an apt thanksgiving on any morning, but especially on one’s birthday. These verses capture the essence of that prayer. (BTW, I turned 81 today. A birthday prayer would be greatly appreciated.)

For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
    they would outnumber the grains of sand—
    when I awake, I am still with you.

Music: For the Beauty of the Earth – John Rutter, performed by Gracias Choir

For Your Reflection:

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Love Anoints Us

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn dying, Faith, Forgiveness, friendship, Jesus, Lent, Mercy, spirituality4 Comments

March 29, 2026
Palm Sunday

Purity of heart is to be without guile, hidden agendas.
It is to be honestly intentioned in our actions and words.

During Holy Week, a fundamental question comes before us. How should the precious oil be used – tenderly poured out or reasonably saved? It is a question that challenges us to balance justice with mercy, reality with hope, law with passion, to be pure of heart. How are we being asked to open our alabaster jar?

After Peg’s father died, she rummaged through parts of his house preparing it for sale. When Peg was a child, the bottom drawer of the china closet was always her dad’s exclusive domain. She prepared to open it now like a priest approaching the sacred altar. Inside, Peg found the normal treasures stored against a rainy day: rubber bands, expired coupons, Band-aids, and a Swiss Army knife.

In an old wallet, she discovered a forgotten twenty-dollar bill and a creased, browning paper. Unfolded, the note revealed a 1960’s Christmas shopping list. Beside Peg’s name was scribbled “skates, pajamas and Slinky.” Beside her mother’s name, there was a single phrase: “Chanel N°5.”

Peg’s middle class family avoided extravagance. With four children, they could not afford it. Her father’s one excursion into luxury was to anoint her mother with this prized perfume. The annual act released a balm of silent devotion between them redeeming any of the year’s frayed misunderstandings.

During Holy Week, we see Mary anoint Jesus’s feet with costly aromatic nard. We watch Jesus kneel to pour a sacred blessing over his disciples’ feet. We experience God’s lavish mercy wash over us in blood and water, in sacrament and sacrifice. These acts draw us into God’s infinite, unquenchable love.

Our names have been folded eternally into God’s heart. An extravagant mercy has been given for us. This week, walking with Jesus from the supper table, through the garden and on to Calvary, may we embrace the deep anointing of God’s Passion for us. May it redeem us and open us to full Easter joy!

Music: Agnus Dei – Monks of the Abbey of Notre Dame

Suggested Scripture: Philippians 2:1-11

Click for Scripture

For Your Reflection:

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Valentine’s Lesson

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn friendship, inclusivity, justice, Love, spirituality, Virtue5 Comments

February 14, 2026
St. Valentine’s Day

Benignity, a Fruit of the Holy Spirit, is defined as
compassionate and thoughtful action toward others.

Sister Gertrude was my beautiful 3rd-grade teacher. She was kindness itself in human form, the personification of “Benignity”.

About two weeks before Valentine’s Day, Sister said we could give one another “friendship cards” by posting them to the decorated box she had set in the classroom corner. On February 14th, the box would be opened and we would learn who our best friends were, and even if we might have some secret admirers! I was really excited because I was in love with Johnny Meyers, but I didn’t think he knew I was even alive. I thought this might help me find out!

It sounds like a delightful idea, doesn’t it, until you think about the couple of kids who don’t have any friends, or the ones whose families can’t afford the cost of cards.

I didn’t think about any of those things when I was eight years old, but I do remember one curious thing. On Valentine’s Day, every child in our classroom received several cards, even Henry Walsh whom we all shunned because he was mean and selfish. Besides, he wore his hair little bit like the monster kid from “The Blob”!

Then I realized that Sister’s conversation with me a week earlier might not have been an isolated incident. Maybe she had taken aside other kids besides me and given them three or four cards. Maybe she had encouraged them too to send a card to someone it was hard to like, or to someone who might not have friends. She had told me that we don’t always know what makes a person unlikable, but that usually it wasn’t their fault. Maybe a surprise card could help them out a little bit.

So, I sent a card to a few kids I didn’t like that much. And I learned the lesson Sister was trying to teach. It was the kind of lesson that kept on teaching for the next seventy years … and still going, each year with deeper understanding.

Yeah, and here’s the funny part that I have never fully unpacked. Henry Walsh, class mini-monster, sent ME a card! Apparently, he thought I didn’t have any friends, or maybe he wasn’t too thrilled with my hairdo either!

By the way, Johnny Meyers did send a card, and I don’t think it was one Sister gave him because it came with a friendship ring out of a Cracker Jack box. We all know what that means! Even I knew, and I was only in 3rd grade!

Nevertheless, I didn’t marry Johnny despite that Valentine’s Day proposal, but I learned a life-long lesson about love from Sister Gertrude.

Music: Try a Little Kindness – Glen Campbell’s song sung by Collin Raye

Suggested Reading: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Click for Scripture

For Your Reflection

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Fun=Joy in Action

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Faith, friendship, inclusivity, joy, Love, spirituality2 Comments

February 7, 2026

Today’s news is full of impending competition – (even outside Washington 😂). Who will prevail, be the best, break the record, win the trophy?

But the opening of the Olympic Games and the start of Super Bowl weekend have me thinking about other kinds of games – the ones we play for fun, not to gain advantage.

Photo by Jim De Ramos on Pexels.com


Long ago, an older friend complained to me, “I have forgotten how to have fun!” The declaration startled me and left me speechless. If there was a formula, “young me” didn’t have it. However, over the decades of my own aging, I have pondered that remark, often examining my own life for signs of “fun diminishment”.

Those signs do seem to increase as responsibility grows or as energy wanes. What came naturally to us as children requires a little attention as we mature. As kids, we simply ran outside into the sunshine or rain, found somebody or something that absolutely entranced us, and magic happened.

I remember sitting on the front step with my friend Harry. We were both nine years old. I had just gotten a plastic camera in the mail with a quarter and a coupon from a cereal box. For an hour or so, we took pictures of pigeons perched on the telephone wires and garbage cans. We imagined ourselves expert artists creating a legacy for generations. It was easy then to forget that we were serious fourth-graders with unfinished homework, impending report cards, and a few chores before bedtime. It was also easy to forget that there was no film in the camera!

Later in life, that kind of beneficial forgetting is not so easy. We must unleash ourselves from a chain of “to dos” and “be carefuls”. We know better now. We don’t go out in the sun without screening, nor into the rain without an umbrella. We mostly try to avoid pigeons and garbage cans. Our potential “playgrounds” become much more constrained, sometimes inhibited by a false requirement of excessive money, planning, or chemical relaxation.

Examining my fun levels today, I realize how blessed I am.

My nieces, nephews, and grands live hundreds of miles away from me. Yet they provide me with invaluable links to pure fun. Every morning, a few of us play Wordl, Connections, or Crossplay together. I know they may be checking to see if I’m still alive, but the main purpose is fun – and the precious assurance of mutual care.

The younger kids delight me with photos of themselves doing modern imitations of Harry and me with the pigeons.
In our convent community rooms, I may find a game of pinochle, Hand and Foot, chess, bingo, or gin rummy. Even more precious, there always awaits a conversation with memories of good times, funny stories, and the generous abandon of enjoying one another.

So, if I came up with a fun formula today, it would include these essentials:

  • Fun is any “playground” where we find and give joy.
  • To have real fun, we don’t focus on the score.
  • We need time to have fun, just like we need time to eat, sleep, work, and pray.
  • We need to know what fun is – that it makes us laugh, appreciate the other, relax, and surrender self-importance
  • Fun is essentially spontaneous, but we can expose ourselves to its influence by not taking ourselves too seriously.
  • Fun always requires getting “outside” – even if it means only from our self-centeredness.
  • We can have fun alone with a game or movie, but it helps to have someone to have fun with, (and as Pope Leo said, someone not created by AI.)

Music: We All Stand Together – Paul McCartney

Let yourself be delighted by the thought of FUN!

Suggested Scripture: Ecclesiastes 3:9-13

Click for Scripture

For Your Reflection:

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

October Blue

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Courage, Cross, dying, Eternal Life, friendship, spirituality3 Comments

October 14, 2025

That long-ago October was particularly brilliant. It was one of those rare seasons where each morning was filled with sunshine and promise. It was a month that measured up to the poet, Helen Hunt Jackson’s, description:

O suns and skies and clouds of June,
And flowers of June together,
Ye cannot rival for one hour
October’s bright blue weather.

I remember that October so well because one of my friends was dying, stricken suddenly and irrevocably by a severe pneumonia. Only two of us could visit at a time, so I, along with her many other friends, would gather at times on the bench outside the hospital where she struggled to survive. We would watch that bright blue sky and turn over and over in our minds those questions that have no answers. Why so young, why now, why her?

Starling Murmuration – Joe Hisaishi

Flocks of starlings were in their seasonal dance, bold against that brilliant blue sky. Maybe you have noticed a few already this month, swerving through the air in their perfectly balanced helix, like smoke at the wind’s disposal. I remember watching them during that distant October, wondering if we had told Gail often enough how precious she was. She was a small, humble, and joyous person – very quiet and unassuming. I wondered if people fully understood the powerhouse of generosity and goodness underneath that humility.

Gail De Macedo, RSM
August 11, 1937 – October 14, 1995

I found the answer at her funeral. Hundreds of people jammed the lanes to our Motherhouse and filled the chapel with their song to celebrate her life. She had quietly made her mark – and what a mark it was! Now, years later, the sharp edge of her loss has dulled somewhat, but her bold, quiet, courageous legacy has only deepened. In times when I need the gifts of humility, patience, generosity, and kindness, I pray to her. She always helps me.

Over this weekend, we should begin to see that “bright blue weather”. Watch for the graceful starlings, pirouetting their way to a winter refuge. Above all, as you wonder at Creation, reflect on love and kindness. Honor these virtues where you find them in yourself and your neighbors. They endure beyond all seasons.

Music: No More Goodbyes – Tom Dermody

For Your Reflection

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Suggested Scripture: Revelation 21:1-4

Click for Scripture

Healing

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Creation, dying, Faith, friendship, Mercy, Psalms, Seasons, spirituality6 Comments

October 2, 2025

Artwork by Judy Ward, RSM

Today, for your reflection, a poem I wrote decades go. I offer it today in memory of Judy Ward, RSM who passed away on September 27, 2025. Her life will be celebrated on October 2nd in a Mass of Christian Burial in the chapel at Mt. St. Mary, where Judy attended school, became a Sister of Mercy, and taught for many years.

Judy, a gifted artist, did so much to encourage me and to illustrate and promulgate my work. I will miss her generous kindness and her friendship.

October is a time when nature changes clothes.
Leaves, like miniature volcanoes, flare up and die, ashes at the foot of a silent, seemingly immortal tree.
Geese, having dawdled all summer in veiled expectation, suddenly leap into the clouds and disappear.
These solemn miracles may incline us to consider our own impermanence and the gossamer phenomenon we call life.

Healing

Music: A Playlist of Autumn Music

For Your Reflection

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Suggested Scripture: Psalm 104

Click for Scripture

The 5th of July

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Faith, friendship, justice, spirituality8 Comments

July 5, 2025

Photo by Rakicevic Nenad on Pexels.com
1812 Overture in E-Flat Major, Op.49: I. Largo – Allegro giusto

After all the speeches, sparklers, and spectaculars, the “Next Day” dawns. I wonder what it was like for Jefferson, Franklin, Hamilton, and Adams on the fifth of July in 1776. Did they wake up thinking, “Declaration of Independence – signed. Now, make it happen!”?

When you get right down to it, most of our days are 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8ths of July. They are the days after graduation when we need to get a job. They are the days after the honeymoon when somebody needs to cook dinner and take out the trash. They are the days after the promotion when the first deadline looms and a bunch of faces are looking to you for the plan. They are the days that follow any major life decision, when we must take stock and determine who we are now – in this new dimension.

If the 4th of July is Independence Day, the 5th is Dependability Day, a day to celebrate the people we can always count on. They are there for the parades but they are there for the clean up afterward. They light the spark for the fireworks, but they have a hose nearby just in case. They put their “John Hancock” on the brave new dream and they show up the next morning to design its daunting execution.

The 5th of July is a day to celebrate our own sense of responsibility or “Dependability” – to realize that most of us really do try to be good spouses, parents, employees, neighbors, sons, daughters and friends – that we do keep making the effort every day to be someone for others and not just for ourselves. It is a day to look around at the people in our lives and be grateful that most of them are trying to do the same thing.

Like the founding patriots, we all need to wake up the next day, consider the “dependabilities” in our lives, and put our shoulders to the task of making a better world. Each of our lives is its own small country where the future really depends on how we show up on our “5th of Julys”. The fact that you get up every day and engage that challenge is cause for its own celebration. So if you have a little sparkler left in your back yard, light it for yourself tonight – and for your spouse, your community, your friends, your boss, your kids, your co-workers – who all showed up today to do the best they could on the 5th of July.

Thanks for that and Happy Fifth!

Music: We Need Each Other – PROSKUNED

For Your Reflection:

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Suggested Scripture: Romans 12:3-21

Click for Scripture

Pimple Balls

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Creation, Faith, friendship, inclusivity, joy, peace, spirituality9 Comments

June 8, 2025

David Lanz – Return to the Heart

The neighborhoods of my youth were safe playgrounds. On a summer morning, a score of sparkling kids would tumble out onto the bricks like polished marbles rolling to their sparsely equipped games. Occasionally, some kid would have a new pimple ball, prompting an hours-long boxball game, guttered corners serving as bases.

When, over the weeks, that ball grew smooth and airless, we cut it in half, grabbed a doctored broomstick, and hit the halfball up over the electric wires fringing our city street. Top one wire, a single; top two, a double. Lose it on the roof and you had to find a four-inch length of hose to replace it. This until the next kid lost a tooth, got a dime from the tooth fairy, and contributed a new ball.

On those afternoons, the surrounding porches and stoops were dotted with grandparents in folding chairs, escaping the swelter of the unairconditioned houses. They served to arbitrate any particularly sticky play, precursors of instant replay. Behind the houses, our mothers held council together over their billowing clotheslines.

By the time our dads came home, carrying their empty black lunch pails, we shiny kids were dusty with city soot. The beach-chaired elders had solved all the problems of world affairs and our moms had rendered the house ready for the daily family dinner liturgy.

These were such simple times, so simple that they may seem even naïve in today’s complex society. But their symbols assure me that, though things change, they remain the same. The shared play, the community of conversation, the neighborly support group, the evening gathering to home – these were the holy anchors that fed our spirits and honed our souls.

The outline of these sacramentals may look different today, but their substance must remain if we are ever to be happy people – people who live in the world as playmates, neighbors, friends, and family. That, dear friends, is what we were created to be.

Music: Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

For Your Reflection:

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Suggested Scripture: Mark 12:28-29

Click for Scripture

Glimpses of Glory

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Community, friendship, Mercy, spirituality1 Comment

May 18, 2025

Spiegel Im spiegel (Mirron in the Mirror)

Like many of our immigrant ancestors, my early family was rather poor. They and their neighbors labored to put food on the table and to keep the house warm. I remember one neighbor in particular from my very early childhood. Widowed young and unskilled, she struggled to raise three children in a two-room house. My mother saw her devastation. Financially strapped herself, Mom would “hire” Rae about four times a year to help her house clean – – this rather than embarrass her with a direct handout.

Rae quietly and gratefully acknowledged my mother’s secret strategy. We would be rewarded with a pot of Rae’s famous “Pepper Pot Soup”. This was a poor person’s soup, made from scraps the butcher might otherwise discard. But, through her generous mutuality, Rae transformed it into a gourmet meal. She grew the spices for cooking in a little plot behind her house. I savored their scent which has never been quite repeated in my life.

I haven’t tasted Rae’s soup in nearly seventy years, but I can still savor the divine dimension of my mother’s generosity and of Rae’s gratitude. These women left me a glimpse of glory – an insight into how God sees, loves, and responds – both to our unspoken needs and our deliberate generosities.

  • 1 pound honeycomb beef tripe
  • 5 slices bacon, diced
  • 3 medium leeks, chopped
  • 2 medium green bell peppers, diced
  • 1 bunch fresh parsley, chopped
  • ½ cup chopped onion
  • ½ cup chopped celery
  • 2 quarts beef stock
  • 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • ½ teaspoon dried marjoram
  • ½ teaspoon ground cloves (Optional)
  • ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
  • ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
  • 1 large bay leaf
  • 2 large carrots, diced
  • 1 large potato, peeled and diced
  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Music: A Little a This and That – Pete Seeger (Lyrics below)

My grandma, she can make a soup,
With a little a’ this ‘n’ that.
She can feed the whole sloop group,
With a little a’ this ‘n’ that.
Stone soup! You know the story.
Stone soup! Who needs the glory?
But with grandma cooking, no need to worry.
Just a little a’ this ‘n’ that.

Grandma likes to make a garden grow,
With a little a’ this ‘n’ that.
But she likes to have the ground just so,
With a little a’ this ‘n’ that.
Not too loose and not too firm.
In the spring, the ground’s all got to be turned.
In the fall, lots of compost, to feed the worms,
With a little a’ this ‘n’ that.

Grandma knows we can build a future,
With a little a’ this ‘n’ that.
And a few arguments never ever hurt ya,
With a little a’ this ‘n’ that.
True, this world’s in a helluva fix,
And some say oil and water don’t mix.
But they don’t know a salad-maker’s tricks,
With a little a’ this ‘n’ that.

The world to come may be like a song,
With a little a’ this ‘n’ that.
To make ev’rybody want to sing along,
With a little a’ this ‘n’ that.
A little dissonance ain’t no sin,
A little skylarking to give us all a grin.
Who knows but God’s got a plan for the people to win,
With a little a’ this ‘n’ that.

For Your Reflection

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Suggested Scripture: 1 Kings 17:8-16

Click for Scripture