What Did I Accomplish Today?

What is the
measure
of a
good day?

Accomplishment
can be a strange
idol.
It promises
peace
after one more
task,
one more sermon,
one more song,
one more post,
one more
finished
thing.

But then
the day
ends,
and my soul
still has to
live
with itself.

Here in the
twilight,
rather than
asking
what I have
done,
a better
measure
might be:

Did I become
more free today?

Did I become
less bitter?

Did I tell
the truth?

Did I release
what was
not mine
to carry?

Did I move
even slightly
toward
love?

A clear mind
and
a better heart
may be
holier than
a completed
checklist.

So maybe
my evening prayer
is simply this:

Lord,
I release the day.
I release what I finished
and what I failed to finish.
Clear my mind.
Soften my heart.
Let me sleep as one who is loved,
not as one who must prove his worth.
Amen #accomplishment #clearMind #Contemplation #ContemplativeArt #emotionalHealing #eveningPrayer #Faith #Grace #healingHeart #heartAndMind #Hope #innerLight #innerPeace #LettingGo #mentalClarity #Mindfulness #peace #Prayer #release #renewal #sacredRest #SelfWorth #Serenity #SoulCare #spiritualArt #SpiritualJourney #SpiritualReflection #symbolicIllustration #Transformation #twilight #WordPressTags

Angeler

I love to fish.

It is one of the things that has followed me from my childhood into my adulthood.

I’ve often wondered why a fisherman is called an angler. I discovered the etymology of the word means “one who fishes with an angle.” The word “angul” is from the old German meaning a hook.

So, an angler is not someone who is enthralled by geometric patterns though I’ll admit there is some calculation and mathematics involved in successful fishing.

One must cast at the correct angle (pun intended) in order for the lure to land in the correct spot in whatever body of water the angler is angling in. The line is of limited length. If there is not enough line on the reel, the place where the angler believes the fish are waiting will not be reached.

The cast. The return. The repetition. The circles emanating out from where the lure has landed. The waiting. The strike. The fish captured by the angle. The contentment. The release. Rinse. Repeat. Calculate the angle of the next cast.

Or is “angle” simply a garbled rendition of “angel” where the l and the e have simply been switched? If I, like Icarus, have fallen into the sea, will there be a golden line cast from heaven to capture me, send me soaring again?

We’ve been made a little lower than the angels. Have we no wings? Is the itching in my shoulder blades the faint memory of flight? Perhaps as noted before, I am simply Exocoetidea, a fish out of water, seeking flight, yet still tied to the depths.

I think I will call myself an “angeler,” in the hope that on a quiet morning on some sacred shore, the mist rising like incense off the water, I will rediscover my wings.

#Angeler #Angels #Angler #ChildhoodMemory #Contemplation #creativeNonfiction #Exocoetus #Faith #FallenAndRising #Fishing #FishingMetaphor #flight #FlyingFish #GoldenLine #Grace #Icarus #MythicArt #Mythology #NatureWriting #Ocean #personalEssay #PoetryProse #sea #soul #SpiritualReflection #symbolicArt #Theology #Water #wings #Wonder #WordPressTags

The Reluctant Cyborg

The wires as of now are invisible. There are no protruding jacks in my head. My glasses have no special features except progressive lenses, which I guess means my world view skews toward the left. Or maybe they allow me to keep moving forward into the future.

I wonder what tomorrow will hold. Will I die more machine than flesh?

Will I die?

Or will I, as Rodney Crowell sings, go to heaven on a hard disc drive?

On days when my body lets me know in no uncertain terms that it has had quite enough of gravity’s weight, thank you very much, there is a longing for replacement parts with less wear and tear on them. I guess with all my aches and pains, I should be thankful that I, as yet, do not have anything artificial within. Though, that is not to say that those mini machines are not life-giving. There are many whose health has been rejuvenated by amazing tech.

I have been promised a new body. I’ll be honest, the idea of spending eternal bliss in some beautiful realm seems kind of boring, but that’s the overachieving creative talking. I wonder what my awareness will be. And if I am mostly machine, what will translate into the new transmutation.

Perhaps the internet will serve as the repository for my soul, at least the creative part of it anyway, and this treatise one more deposit in the cryogenic chamber of my legacy.

#AIArt #BodyTechHeaven #BodyTechnology #ChristianFuturism #ChristianImagination #CyberAngel #CyberneticGrace #CyborgAngel #CyborgSpirituality #DigitalSpirituality #DivineTechnology #FutureBody #futuristicArt #FuturisticIllustration #HeavenAndTheSoul #HiddenWires #HumanAndMachine #PosthumanTheology #ProgressiveLenses #ReluctantCyborg #SacredTechnology #ScienceFictionTheology #SoulAndTechnology #SoulEssay #SpiritualTechnology #TechnoTheology #TheFutureOfTheBody #TheReluctantCyborg #TheologyAndAI #Transhumanism #WordPressTags