It's the familiar low ringing in my ears I hear when most is still and quiet, the creaks of the house as the sun rises and begins to warm, the slow of my thoughts in the day just birthing - those are a few of my favorites about early morning. Only faint, non-involved noises run as soundtrack to day beginning. I am free to roam, open to prayer as habitation rather than dictation and more of myself. These wait for me each week, and I rise no matter how heavy my eyes hang. This is where I reset. Here, all which befuddles me throughout the day before is muted in the silence of morning still. The struggle to be someone better is lost in the remembrance of God's simplicity of love and grace, for I am my worst when I fight to be more. In early solitude, before my business begins to color the day, my thoughts recoil to grace and beginning again. I find my footing again in the path already beaten for me. My hands aren't clinched to, readied to fight, but open prepared to receive what is truly needed for the hours ahead, all the hours until I lay my head down again exhausted.
Here, in the earliest of my day, my prayer is simple: "may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight."
This I know to be true: what I permit to thrive in my heart fills my words and moves my hands. So in quiet, settled there on my couch or outside with the birds singing praise, my heart is surgically cut free and cleaned again in the habitation of grace and acceptance.
As for the articles, well here are a few I've enjoyed recently:
And perhaps, you've heard of a particular disease scare that's affected the neighborhoods surrounding where we live. No? Well, read here.
- Maybe more importantly, read this article.
- Public Health and the Common Good
With that, we'll soon be out of the door to enjoy great music and the great fall-ish weather here in Dallas. Here's to an amazing weekend for you as well!