240 Successive Slow-Stalking Cats

Four minutes remain before my homemade fat-free pita-pizza is ready to pull from the oven. Normally, four minutes are a fleeting fifteenth of an hour. Now that I’m hungry, though, four minutes are 240 successive slow-stalking cats. I turn my back on the clock,...

Eternity’s Always Promising Attraction

There is a towering cumulus cloud billowing to the west as the sun sets. Its internal hues lean just enough to darker grays and blues to declare that given the right atmospheric circumstance, it could have been a cumulonimbus. But the golds, salmons, and fuchsias...

God Declares That You Are the Light of the World

“And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light...

Jesus Feigns Nothing

As an 8th grade novitiate to speech and debate, I watch the team’s 9th grade apotheosis practice her oratory. Her delivery is impeccable, sans pause verbal or not. I am mildly surprised to learn after the weekend tournament that she placed only second. I am downright...

The Noise Which Distracts

We borrowed a dog. He needed a place to be for a while, and we could do it, so we did. As it turns out, he is two dogs in a single, small, short-legged, black-coated, old-man-faced package. One of his personalities is proof that humankind has kept canine companionship...

To Big Bend I Go

In the night’s sky I find the world’s best horizon toward the eternal: imponderable distances, imperturbable powers, nonpareil beauty; hours observing feel like minutes. For months I have planned and prepared to celebrate my 58th birthday with a week under clear,...

Something Is in the Air

My sense of smell is somewhat compromised, likely a side-effect either of a severe nasal problem during my childhood or the constant use of 1970s sprays, ointments, and other medications to treat it. Some scents seem unaffected: strawberries and such, thank heaven;...