Do not look for rest in any pleasure, because you were not created for pleasure: you were created for spiritual joy. And if you do not know the difference between pleasure and spiritual joy you have not yet begun to live. –Thomas Merton

Birds taking flight–especially large birds. I swoon at their ballet. Rarely do I manage to capture a split second of it for my eternal amazement. Me, on the other hand? So burdened with concerns and things…. STORAGE … Things! Burn them, burn them! Make a beautiful fire! More room in your heart for love, for the trees! For birds who own nothing–the reason they can fly! –Mary Oliver

Western honey bees are not native to North America, but like so many immigrants, they have proved their worth. They help pollinate many crops, not to mention the wildflowers and the many flowering plants with which we beautify our yards. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, one honey bee colony “can gather about 40 pounds of pollen and 265 pounds of nectar” annually. Here in the south, much of the honey that pollen and nectar converts into ends up on our biscuits. Simple pleasure! Truly our lives flow with milk and honey. Give thanks.

I know nothing in the world that has as much power as a word. sometime I write one, and I look at it, until it begins to shine. –Emily Dickinson

The Israelites are angry and quarrelsome. They imagine–irrationally?–that they might have been better off staying in slavery in Egypt. Freedom can be such a pain…. In frustration, Moses and Aaron “fall on their faces” before divine authority, seeking relief for their suffering people. And relief comes, in the form of life-giving water from out of stone. Oh, that today we would be baptized by waters of Meribah.