Winter Haiku

Silent snow and ice
Are everywhere--how noisy
My heartbeat, my breath!

Little House on the Prairie

OK--if you're my wife (or anyone else who harbors strong positive feelings for the Little House on the Prairie TV series), STOP READING NOW!!!!

You have been warned.

For the rest of you, here are "10 Surprising Wholesome Values Discovered in Old Episodes of 'Little House on the Prairie.'"

Two kinds of belief

I recently indulged myself with a series of comments on my friend Serenity's post about church-going and communion. Oddly enough, I found this quote that seems pertinent to those comments in the front of a paperback mystery I am reading. There are several Jim Corbett's, including a famous hunter and a famous prize-fighter, but I'm assuming that this Jim Corbett was the Quaker activist who was a co-founder of the Sanctuary movement.

There is a faith that is primarily belief. This kind of faith calls for definitive doctrines from which guiding objectives and priorities can be derived. And there is a faith that is primarily trust. This kind of faith expects to be guided by a unifying presence that enlivens each moment, breaks all borders, gathers us into communion with one another, and addresses us in all we meet. For faith as belief, it makes sense to ask how all we presently encounter can be used to achieve our (or God's) objecives; the present must be sacrificed to the future. For faith as trust, the future we hope for must emerge out of a fulfilled present; to treat any being or situation we meet only as a means to be used or as an obstacle to be eliminated attacks the historically unique liberating power with which every person and every community is endowed.

--Jim Corbett