You’ll be amazed to learn that I am writing this post, not from the Sticky Chair, but from the garden bench. Pleasant insect sounds abound, as well as a dog barking just far enough away to be background noise. The trees are singing their susurrus song, which is no doubt near the top of creation’s hit chart. Towers of purple coneflowers are straight ahead. I can see bees delicately taking pollen from those startlingly orange middles. The flowers give, the bees take, and everyone is happy. The bees are having a party over on the cornflowers, too. “I think that I shall never see, an insect happy as a bee.” (With apologies to Joyce Kilmer for stealing his lovely lines.)

I haven’t copied much in my Commonplace Book lately. It is an oft-interrupted habit. But I have a few to share.

Meekness allows us to sit easy in our saddle, not reacting like a thermometer to the surrounding situation, but by being more like a thermostat, setting the temperature of our own spirit, even if we have no control of the surrounding situation. Meekness allows us to get control of our own soul.
Nancy Wilson

I’ve heard another definition of meekness as “power under control.” The control of the soul is key. Next time I feel my emotional temperature rising, let me remember to be more like a thermostat than a thermometer, controlling rather than reacting.

We are always looking for justice;
the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount is – never look for justice, but never cease to give it.
Oswald Chambers

But what about my rights? What about them, indeed? Jesus had a better claim to rights on the way to the cross than we could ever have, yet He went anyway.

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. …Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in Heaven.”
Jesus, the Sermon on the Mount

Case in point.

My tendency is to think that my burdens are very big, very existential, but they must be solved only by moving heaven on earth. Very often, they are solved by a snack, a nap, or a bath.
Joy Clarkson (from the book You Are A Tree)

I suspect – but don’t yell at me about this – that this may be more true of women than men. Many’s the time I’ve been beside myself about something, only to find that a good night’s rest worked wonders.

And now, right on schedule, I’m hearing the lilting coo of the mourning dove.

I’ll probably need to turn the thermostat down on this post in the morning.