I’m running again.

I give myself credit for “running”….even though what I do is really kind of “shuffling”.

I move….and I don’t walk….so even if I’m doing it when no one else can see me….and it’s really kind of a shuffling sort of running….I AM RUNNING.

Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned my lack of proper form?

It sounds a lot grander when I just say, “I’m running. I’m putting in the mileage. I excel at life.”

I should gild the lily a little….talk it up.

Why not? Who would know if I stretched the truth and never got timed or let anyone see me doing it? Why not?

The moon was receding this morning….but even though it still wasn’t the giant blue moon of a couple of nights ago, on a cloudless early morning it lit up the night sky.

That makes it easy to run when I can see everything.

Stumps are still sometimes “bears”…..but the second look is easier when there’s some light to see that it was just a stump after all.

Ponder.

There’s some guys around here named “Ponder”.

What a great last name.

I’ll bet that’s something they never gave a second thought to, though.

They never “pondered” their last name.

Most of them don’t strike me as “that kind of guy”.

There is a time in between light and night when it is so quiet and so beautiful that I can’t help but…..what? But what?

Ponder.

I guess that I’m enraptured by the peace of standing in the middle of a quiet road….staring up at the stars and the partial moon….pondering….knowing how small I am but how much a part of all the bigness I am, too.

All the bigness.

People come to the conclusion somehow that there is “no God”. It’s science….historical explosions and aggressive DNA….random and vague, sometimes, concrete and understood, other times….atmosphere and weather and all the other explainable phenomena….ordered and common and, probably most beautifully, to some….with US at the center of it all.

The biggest bang of all….when we need to describe a miracle.

Who could comprehend the scale of a miracle?

A “man centered faith” doesn’t hold any interest to me.

There’s more than just “us”.

But….”us” is what we know.

It’s something we can put our finger on….even if knowing about “us” doesn’t get “us” any closer to treating each other well.

What I know is that I feel the breeze…see the stars….hear the birds waking up….and I can’t help but believe that something good designed this.

Maybe it’s just a “nice morning”….that’s enough, too.

There’s a lot to ponder.

All the time….a lot to ponder.

How do I show the thankfulness this all deserves?

“his eye is on the sparrow” John Medeski