Magic
By John Trent
As I sat on my back porch yesterday evening, I could hear the ‘latest’ group of neighborhood children playing in the front yard. Oh, the imagination and innocence, but most importantly, the continuous laughter… It was magic!
I have found that no matter where I am in the world and no matter what language is spoken, the laughter of children is spiritually uplifting. This pure and simple act is the essence of childhood.
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As adults we tend to dwell on our own preoccupations with responsibilities and anxieties, while forgetting how to live simply or .......'simply live'. Many times I have passed a park or a school yard and heard the laughter of playing children, only to pause and reminisce over my own lost childhood and that of my own children.
Although we can no longer fit into our play clothes and return to those yourthful days, we can take comfort in the optimism and imagination of our world's children.
I encourage each of you to rekindle the simplicity of childhood........ and laugh. I promise….. it’s magic!!!!!
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Simplicity
Simplicity
by John Trent
I arose at 0500 this morning to prepare for our company's budget meeting. No complaints though, I am always thankful to once again have another go at life today. It's funny, I remember telling myself, while in high school and college, how I would never study, do homework, prepare for tests, and write papers ever again. I laugh at those naive thoughts and how much I really didn't know about life.
Everyday is a test........... Everyday we are graded or judged on how well we work, how we parent, being a neighbor and the list goes on and on. As children we are insulated from these difficulties, but as we mature and enter the world of grown-ups, our child-like essence slowly evaporates. Many of us long for those pure and simple days only to realize WE have forever changed
Tom Stoppard said, "If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older." So true in so many ways, we should all seek a return to simplicity..... In reality, we don't need much. We need protection from the elements, sustenance, and love. A true and wonderful love. Not that of a teen, but a true and simple love founded on kindness, humility, and respect for all beings.
by John Trent
I arose at 0500 this morning to prepare for our company's budget meeting. No complaints though, I am always thankful to once again have another go at life today. It's funny, I remember telling myself, while in high school and college, how I would never study, do homework, prepare for tests, and write papers ever again. I laugh at those naive thoughts and how much I really didn't know about life.
Everyday is a test........... Everyday we are graded or judged on how well we work, how we parent, being a neighbor and the list goes on and on. As children we are insulated from these difficulties, but as we mature and enter the world of grown-ups, our child-like essence slowly evaporates. Many of us long for those pure and simple days only to realize WE have forever changed
Tom Stoppard said, "If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older." So true in so many ways, we should all seek a return to simplicity..... In reality, we don't need much. We need protection from the elements, sustenance, and love. A true and wonderful love. Not that of a teen, but a true and simple love founded on kindness, humility, and respect for all beings.
The Key
The Key
by John Trent
As the sun slowly rises through the trees, creating a spectrum of purples, pinks, oranges, and yellow, I sit quietly and peacefully in contemplative awe. Throughout our lives we overlook this daily miracle. Not only are we blessed with the ability to see the rising sun everyday, we are free to experience this simple daily event.
Many people, including ourselves, are in prison. As we tread life's twisting and turning path, we are taught, unconsciously, to fashion bricks out of fear and desires; thus, from a very young age we start building our own prisons. Some call these survival skills for the modern world. Maybe so, but these protective walls, still, prevent us from being free.
As I read Thomas Merton's "Thoughts in Solitude", I was inspired by how he dismantled the bricks, one by one, of his self-imposed prison. He allowed himself to be more vulnerable and through this vulnerability, he became more alive and free. Below is a beautiful prayer written by this Catholic Monk from Kentucky. In its message is the key to freedom.............faith.
"My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going, I do not see the road ahead of me, I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore, I will trust you always, though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone." ~ Thomas Merton
by John Trent
As the sun slowly rises through the trees, creating a spectrum of purples, pinks, oranges, and yellow, I sit quietly and peacefully in contemplative awe. Throughout our lives we overlook this daily miracle. Not only are we blessed with the ability to see the rising sun everyday, we are free to experience this simple daily event.
Many people, including ourselves, are in prison. As we tread life's twisting and turning path, we are taught, unconsciously, to fashion bricks out of fear and desires; thus, from a very young age we start building our own prisons. Some call these survival skills for the modern world. Maybe so, but these protective walls, still, prevent us from being free.
As I read Thomas Merton's "Thoughts in Solitude", I was inspired by how he dismantled the bricks, one by one, of his self-imposed prison. He allowed himself to be more vulnerable and through this vulnerability, he became more alive and free. Below is a beautiful prayer written by this Catholic Monk from Kentucky. In its message is the key to freedom.............faith.
"My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going, I do not see the road ahead of me, I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore, I will trust you always, though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone." ~ Thomas Merton
Love Shines
Love Shines
by John Trent
Oh, my heart is full
Overflowing and overwhelmed
Love's visage, enraptures this once fragile soul
So sweet,
Oh, so sweet,the aroma of each flower I touch
So very clear,
The gray clouded sky as it returns to blue
And the sun,
Oh, the bright and mighty sun,
More brilliant than ever
It shines its essence through my very core
For I have found my way
And soar the winds of contentment
by John Trent
Oh, my heart is full
Overflowing and overwhelmed
Love's visage, enraptures this once fragile soul
So sweet,
Oh, so sweet,the aroma of each flower I touch
So very clear,
The gray clouded sky as it returns to blue
And the sun,
Oh, the bright and mighty sun,
More brilliant than ever
It shines its essence through my very core
For I have found my way
And soar the winds of contentment
I Dance Alone
I Dance Alone
by John Trent
Ribbons,
Rise and twist
Each smoke laced vine,
Entwines my being
Deeper I fall,
Through the essence of my soul
Life’s brilliance exposed
As each moment passes
God's ancient vibration,
Ever rhythmic, ever soulful
Silently plays
And I dance alone
On the infinite of creation
by John Trent
Ribbons,
Rise and twist
Each smoke laced vine,
Entwines my being
Deeper I fall,
Through the essence of my soul
Life’s brilliance exposed
As each moment passes
God's ancient vibration,
Ever rhythmic, ever soulful
Silently plays
And I dance alone
On the infinite of creation
Adrift
Adrift
by John Trent
Be not confused
In this storm of reality
The tide is turbulent,
Yet the ocean calm
We sail on lost seas
And drift idle currents
On this vessel ‘Forever’
With safe haven in view
Yet, infinitely distant
Our shores of serenity
And impatiently wait
The change of the wind
by John Trent
Be not confused
In this storm of reality
The tide is turbulent,
Yet the ocean calm
We sail on lost seas
And drift idle currents
On this vessel ‘Forever’
With safe haven in view
Yet, infinitely distant
Our shores of serenity
And impatiently wait
The change of the wind
Tears
Tears
by John Trent
The quiet hush of early morn's dark
Lowly and layered, fog blankets the wood
So beautiful, so comforting, it hangs o’er head
With beads of quicksilver grasping each needled leaf
"Be not afraid”, speaks the silvery drops
"Temporary our lives in this earthly realm”
With each falling whisper through the ancient pine
Familiar its echo and intensely understood
Smiling, I return, cherishing this moment
Wiping each tear as I begin anew
by John Trent
The quiet hush of early morn's dark
Lowly and layered, fog blankets the wood
So beautiful, so comforting, it hangs o’er head
With beads of quicksilver grasping each needled leaf
"Be not afraid”, speaks the silvery drops
"Temporary our lives in this earthly realm”
With each falling whisper through the ancient pine
Familiar its echo and intensely understood
Smiling, I return, cherishing this moment
Wiping each tear as I begin anew
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