Blue Truck, Red State: Oh Love

Friday, January 1, 2010

Oh Love

10 comments:

Gary said...: New Year's Day always seems like a natural time to reflect on our lives and put things into perspective. We take stock of ourselves, being thankful for what we have and what we have had in the past. We acknowledge and sometimes grieve for our losses in life, celebrate our successes, and evaluate our failures. And at the same time we can often look forward to the future with hope. Sort of like the Yin and Yang of life, a constant balancing act, if you will.

Thanks for sharing your New Years Day here on your blog, Russ. It's this kind of thing that binds us all together and strengthens us.
The best to ya, Russ
Gary; January 2, 2010 at 3:22 AM
Ray's Cowboy said...: Russ, my heart goes out to you. I fully understand were you are coming from. If you need to talk you can email me and I will be here for you.
Ray; January 2, 2010 at 5:40 AM
Mareczku said...: What a beautiful picture, Russ. I read about Rocky and I have tears in my eyes here. He was such a beautiful dog. I read "Grace Happens." You have someone up in heaven praying for you, I know. Your love still survives. Getting emotional here so will just send you my warmest thoughts and a hug.
God bless.; January 2, 2010 at 11:25 AM
Stan said...: Russ I have photo's that I look at sometimes of Stephen, Cleo (dog) and Lucy (cat) all gone from me now and think about the times we had had together. They still live on in mty heart. But sometimes I wonder why am I still here?; January 2, 2010 at 11:38 AM
TomS said...: Russ,
As you know I have written about the unique sense of grief that comes with losing an animal companion. I think Rocky and Maggie the Bassett Hound are having a great time together somewhere.
Your capacity to feel this bond, even now, is one I admire.; January 2, 2010 at 6:18 PM
Russ Manley said...: Thanks from my heart, guys.

Ray - Appreciate the offer, bud. I'm good here . . . just remembering.

Stan - I wonder the same thing.

Tom - I lost my husband too, not just the dog.; January 2, 2010 at 8:31 PM
TomS said...: Russ...I'm sorry....I should have read more completely....please accept my apology and let me know if I can listen in any way...Tom; January 2, 2010 at 10:08 PM
Russ Manley said...: No problem bud. Life goes on.; January 3, 2010 at 12:27 AM
David said...: You've always got that moment Russ, and in among the losses it's a win. =); January 3, 2010 at 2:13 PM
Russ Manley said...: Yup, it is for a fact David. At least I had five years. Some guys never get even that much.; January 3, 2010 at 3:24 PM

Prayer for Peace

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, harmony; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that I may seek not so much to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

Churches say that the expression of love in a heterosexual monogamous relationship includes the physical, the touching, embracing, kissing, the genital act - the totality of our love makes each of us grow to become increasingly godlike and compassionate. If this is so for the heterosexual, what earthly reason have we to say that it is not the case with the homosexual?

It is a perversion if you say to me that a person chooses to be homosexual. You must be crazy to choose a way of life that exposes you to a kind of hatred. It's like saying you choose to be black in a race-infected society.

If God, as they say, is homophobic, I wouldn't worship that God.

--Archbishop Desmond Tutu