Thursday, October 10, 2013

Autumn Love



AUTUMN LOVE

    Yesterday, across a table, I saw a man and woman enamored with each other...like my Love and me, when we first met about a year ago, in the autumn of our days.  It was during class at Gordon College Theological Seminary that I spoke to the Minister and his wife, a Counselor.  My husband is an Ordained Minister and I am a Psychiatric Nurse Clinician.  How profoundly similar our circumstances are!

     Their silence breathed passion in that moment.  I was silenced.  This woman wears my contentment in her eyes – my joy in her smile.  This gazing into each other’s eyes, this gift sculpted by the Almighty is all grace, all tender mercy, all loving-kindness at last realized in the gentle look of love. “ How absolutely dear of you Lord, to grant me a glimpse of what my husband and I must look like to others in our midst.” 

     He touched her hand as though he were touching a porcelain doll: after all, is she not his living Armani figurine dancing atop the music box of life?  They found each other in God’s time, not their own time...this love...this splendid love.  Now, I know the tender, eloquent look of Love’s lovely autumn love.
                                            
    I gave a copy of the above in poetry form to a couple in the Gordon-Conwell Workshop:  my daughter, Jill and I attended a writing workshop there for a week in 2006.    The man was a Minister and his wife was a Social Worker.   Our career paths as well as the time of our marriages were incredibly similar…Jim and--Marie were so happy to receive the poem.

Autumn Love
Yesterday
Across a table
A man and woman
Enamored with each other
Like my Love and me in the autumn of our years

This woman wears my contentment in her eyes
My joy in her smile
He is her long-awaited love-gift –and she his.

Her husband touches her ever so gently, lovingly
As though she were a porcelain doll
Their eyes meet
Their smiles greet…
It’s first-love in autumn-time splendor

Now I know
How tender the eloquent look
Of Love’s lovely
Autumn love

        © October 2012                    Mrs. Vincent Castagna

Thank you, Lord, for turning my mourning into dancing, for strengthening me through my times of tribulation, for loving me through life’s raging storms.  You are truly an amazing God, with amazing power to help us endure and to bring us the victory in your glorious name.

Psalm 116: 7     Return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. 






Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Listen to the Quiet


LISTEN TO THE QUIET

Listen to the Quiet

I love this moment in time

Weeping willows dancing in sweet abandon

Against an azure sky

Tomorrow will wait

An oriole walks on the grass to my porch and chirps a song

Written just for me - This moment knows no sorrow

Raindrops fall on my face and

Hush falls on the pond

Listen to the sweet, sweet sound of silence –

No cares

  No Strife –

Not here during this moment of

Quiet splendor

Only Jesus - Only sunshine - Only cool, cool water

And Jesus pours the Sunshine of His Love on me

Only Jesus - and sunshine and Peace - and Love

At this moment ... Listen to the Quiet ...He is everywhere.
© October, 2012 
Carol T. Castagna

Thank you, Dear Lord, that you are but a prayer away...that you hear us when we call...and that sometimes, when we are too weak to verbalize a request or statement, you hear us when we are silent, just seeking your presence, just whispering your name.  Thank you, Lord, with my heart filled with gratitude.