What I believe on yet another snowy day...

From time to time I like to add up the various "what I believe" insights that have flowed my way in life. Currently I have been touched by the following as yet another monster snow storm visits us for a while:

+ From the poet, Michael Blumenthal, who writes:

I believe there is not justice,
but that cottongrass and bunchberry
grow on the mountain.

I believe that a scorpion's sting
will kill a man,
but that his wife will remarry.

I believe that, the older we get,
the weaker the body,
but the stronger the soul.

I believe that if you roll over at night
in an empty bed,
the air consoles you.

I believe that no one is spared
the darkness,
and no one gets it all.

I believe we all drown eventually
in a sea of our making,
but that the land belongs to someone else.

I believe in destiny.
And I believe in free will.

I believe that, when all
the clocks break,
time goes on without them.

And I believe that whatever
pulls us under,
will do so gently,

so as not to disturb anyone,
so as not to interfere
with what we believe in.

Another poet, Matthew Rohrer, takes this direction:
I believe there is something else

entirely going on but no single
person can ever know it,
so we fall in love.

It could also be true that what we use
everyday to open cans was something
much nobler, that we'll never recognize.

I believe the woman sleeping beside me
doesn't care about what's going on
outside, and her body is warm
with trust
which is a great beginning.

Kevin Costner in the movie, "Bull Durham," makes his belief clear to Susan Sarandon like this:

William Thakeray gave his credo a shot like this:

For the sole edification
Of this decent congregation,
Goodly people, by your grant
I will sing a holy chant--
I will sing a holy chant.
If the ditty sound but oddly,
'Twas a father, wise and godly,
Sang it so long ago--
Then sing as Martin Luther sang,
As Doctor Martin Luther sang:
"Who loves not wine, woman and song,
He is a fool his whole life long!"

The wiley old Robert Fulagm of All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten writes:

I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge-
That myth is more potent than history.
I believe that dreams are more powerful than facts-
That hope always triumphs over experience-
That laughter is the only cure for grief.
And I believe that love is stronger than death.

Reinhold Niebuhr believes that:

Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing true or beautiful makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore, we are saved by love.

And I have become rather taken with this affirmation from the Community of Iona:

With the whole church we affirm that we are made in God's image, befriended by Christ and empowered by the Spirit. With people everywhere we affirm God's goodness at the heart of humanity, planted more deeply than all that is wrong. With all creation we celebrate the miracle and wonder of life; the unfolding purposes of God, forever at work in ourselves and the world.

And I still find myself gettin' back to it with songs like this from Trace Adkins - which is so wonderfully genre-bending in the best country/gospel/blues way - that it always grabs me where I live.

credits: 1) abs by gloria-aniela @ www.deviantart.com; 2) Faraway So Close by Alexandru 1988 @ http://www.deviantart.com/ 3) Sunday Morning Snow by bythewater @ http://www.deviantart.com/ 4) Holy Water by kolaboy @ http://www.deviantart.com/ 5) Makeshift Escape by DefaultUserName @ http://www.deviantart.com/