Seeds in the Wilderness

PSALM 1  1 Blessed  is  the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; 2 But  his delight  is  in the law of the  Lord , And in His law he meditates day and night. 3 He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall  prosper. Blessed "Is" the man, or "Is" the man! or "Is" the man? With the word "is" jumping out from the first line, the first Psalm kind of points its deep finger at me. The four word opening of the Psalm takes a twist as an exclamation and even as a question.  With the key word "meditate" in the second verse, I kind of feel meditation as a process of the pointing of a the Spirit's finger (like the diagnostic finger as in Mc Burney's point for appendicitis) leading to opening me up with a scalpel and a forceps to dig, cut, scoop,...

  A Monster in Tip Toe! Anxiety and stress have their own subtle ways of coming into our lives. They seldom intrude as ominous creatures that hound us during our days, take away our sleep at night, perplex our minds and topple down our lives. In fact, they begin as nice things like desires, hopes, duties; the small demands and pleasures of life. Every day harmless things that weave neatly into the fabric of our lives. Many of these become necessities, few of these become aspirations. Soon the list of everyday things heap up; first a mound, then a hill and before long a mountain. Sometimes, as a small crack; a loss of composure and comfort; a small outburst, anger and finally we just fall apart…much like an earthquake, shaking away our very senses and defenses! There is a fine balance between what we can cope with and what we cannot. There are many things that we manage well: personal life, demands of work, social commitments and our aspirations. Our personal lives have relationship...