The Shovel

a man walks along the road with a shovel
like squinting at those gloppy inkblots
perception defines reality

a pessimist predicts his cemetery destination

wondering who's left widowed this week

an optimist smiles at the old gardener

confident the seeds shake in his pockets

the dramatic paranoid produce mafia crime dramas

in the silver screens behind their eyelids

the practical blink away and find comfort in his task

of the much-needed retention ditch

the child thinks he might be headed for a big beach

and hopes he meets a friend with a big pail

the egotists don't even see him

and the apathetics don't even care

and all the while I keep wondering

what truth he might find

if he just digs a little deeper


"The optimist's pleasure was prosaic, for it dwelt on the naturallness of everything. The Christian pleasure was poetic, for it dwelt on the unnaturalness of everything in the light of the supernatural. The modern philosopher has told me again and again that I was in the right place, and I had still felt depressed even in acquiescence. But I had heard that I was in the wrong place, and my soul sang for joy, like a bird in spring." GK Chesterton, Orthodoxy


Then Jesus turned to the Jews who had claimed to believe in him. "If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you." John 8:30-32

"Come near to God and He will come near to you." James 4:8

"You can't have intimacy without honesty. Yes, He already knows, but be honest with God. There's the real freedom." Dr. Bob Laurent, "Spirituality Sells" sermon 1/26-27