The Way It Is
There’s a thread you follow. It goes amongthings that change. But it doesn’t change.People wonder about what you are pursuing.You have to explain about the thread.But it is hard for others to see.While you hold it you can’t get lost.Tragedies…
Watch Your Language
One of these days, I’ll get to It’s Not About Food by Carol Normandie and Laurelee Roark. It’s there on my shelf. If I stand up and take a few steps, I can have it in my hot little hand before you…
Sharing an Apple
Poet Jane Hirshfield is new to me. Robert Bly is the one who introduced us, in his book, Looking for Dragon Smoke, and although I knew Bly’s name, I had paid it no attention (perhaps because none of my college…
I’ll Take My Truth Intact, Thank You
This is my first post in a week. What have I been doing since I last published? What I usually do: living my life; spending time with my family; talking with them, with God; reading; thinking; writing. In fact, one…
Enjoying the View from Here
Well, I guess I cut my vacation short. Thank you to everyone who let me know that my words do matter. It means more than you can imagine. I used to hate Lent with every fiber of my being. I…
More Than You Bargained For
If eternal salvation is a gift from God through Jesus, it means that the only thing required to receive it is either asking for it or “holding out your hands to take hold of it.” If anything more than that—weekly…
Confession
After a Lifetime of Lies, It’s Time to Face the Truth I have been avoiding this post, but doing so is taking a physical toll, and I can’t put it off. A small, shivering wave of anxiety comes over me…
Word of Warning
Let’s find the loophole, the technicality that makes what she is offering wrong. There is certainly something there that will let me dismiss what she’s saying. Oh, I’ll find it, alright. In the meantime, I’ll just just give her a…
Of Men and Misunderstanding
To Share or Not to Share Two days ago, I began thinking in earnest about the balance between silence and expression. I am coming to understand how essential It is to express oneself and to be free to express oneself,…
Just a Pebble in a Pond
St. Thérèse taught the value of the “Little Way”—a path to holiness that lay in performing all our daily tasks and duties in a spirit of love and in the presence of God. Dorothy embraced this teaching. She believed that…
Hold onto It with Both Hands
In the same way, if he had decided that God and immortality did not exist, he would have at once become an atheist and a socialist. For socialism is not merely the labour question, it is before all things the…
Get In the Boat
I didn’t mean to post my sailboat drawing here at The Ruff Draft. I have another, slightly more clandestine (I like that word) blog called Ruff Edge Design that I think of as the place for my art attempts and…