2020 SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT

 Christmas morning spent in thought about the gift that God gave us all.  A Gift that has born meaning throughout the 2020 centuries since mankind tortured and hung that gift on the infamous cross on the hill.  God, throughout all the ages we have shared space on this planet, has always spoken to we humans.  Sometimes His speech has been heard through our ears, sometimes in dreams and sometimes sent through his messengers.  

History has shown that we would always benefit by listening and by doing or reacting in an obedient manner.
This last year has been a constant wake up call.
In one way or another, we have all been touched by the possible messages of our own creation. Occurrences, in some cases, that we have no control over.  

When God created man, He allowed us the gift of free choice.  We can act and do anything we choose to do, but, that doesn't mean those choices go without consequence.  We have been allowed to observe the effects of almost every mal-action mankind can inflict upon our society, and this has happened at the same time we have had to endure a worldwide plague.

The self-inflicted pain to our national society, caused by fraud, deceit, pride, hatred, anger, theft, pretty much all those actions, that rub the stench of sin over the traditions of the "TEN COMMANDMENTS", has resulted in chaos.  Those of us who live in the United States of America have seen our society devolve into groups of angry separation.  The Bible has warned us that one warring against itself will not survive.  We have all watched the same things, thanks to television, but we have seen only through the closed eyes of our own particular dogma or belief systems.  Our country as a nation originated as an idea, an idea based on the teaching passed down through centuries God based, Christ-based messages to us all.

Societies are reflections of the thoughts and actions of all the people involved and our people have steadily moved away from our foundations toward a prideful footing of sand in an attempt to put the individual above the place of God.

As I try to get some type of perspective, on what all has taken place this past year, I hear God raising His voice to us again.  The year has shown us the avarice of putting self first in most unpleasant effects. The plague, Covid virus, maybe a simple warning, a warning that we have moved in the wrong direction and that we need to reverse immediately. 

The shouting voice of scripture tells us we know not when the "thief" will come. Neither hour nor day.  That was a warning that each of us needs to be ready for our own passing.  A warning that each of us need to repent so that we are prepared.  Covid has shown us that it can kill quickly, we have to ask ourselves... am I ready.

The warning contained with-in this virus is not just to the individual but to our entire world society as well.  We need to repent as nations and return to righteousness.  

This has always been a spiritual battle fought on multiple fronts and we need to be sure of which side we choose to be part of.  

Now is the time for prayer, prayer for our brothers in humanity, that we are each ready. Pray that our society moves back toward the blessings of God's directions.

REGRETS? A FEW (c) Ron Burres-2019

REGRETS, THERE ARE A FEW
A LIFETIME
OF LEAVING MANY THINGS TO DO

GOOD INTENTIONS, SCATTERED THROUGHOUT MY TIME
RESULTS LEFT UNDONE
UNINTENDED WITHOUT REASON OR RHYME

CHOICES MADE ALONG THE ROAD
WASTED MILES
HAVE GIVEN MY TREK A HEAVY LOAD

FORKS IN THE ROAD STILL AHEAD
RIGHT OR WRONG
BLIND CHOICES AS I STUMBLE AHEAD

COLOR ME HUMAN

COLOR ME HUMAN         (C) Ron Burres

I SEE A LOT OF THEM IN THE NEWS

AND ON THE TV

THEY JUST DON’T SEEM TO SEE THINGS

THE SAME AS ME

THEY SEE HATRED AND ANGER WHERE EVER THEY LOOK

WHEN I LOOK OUT AT THE WORLD

THIS IS WHAT I SEE

I SEE CHILDREN SINGING WITH JOY IN THEIR VOICE

I SEE PARENTS LOVING GIVING LIFE AS THEIR CHOICE

I SEE BLINDNESS OF COLOR IN THE MAKING OF MAN

I SEE SAMENESS IN ALL

JUST THE ONE RACE

HUMAN

Mothers Day 2015

My mom has been in Heaven for a few years now and for some reason my thoughts turn to her on every Mothers day. It seems that I, for the most part, gave her very little attention. For that shame on me. Please take the time to reach out to your moms often, at some point in your life all you will have is the memory.
This is a poem I wrote a few years back.

Mom, today I pray that you can hear me say
How much I appreciate the things you did
How much I regret not realizing the life you led
And I want to apologize for not telling you
The things I should have said.
To me you are a Hero and I love you.
I think I should have let her know this more often.

Palm Sunday reflection "THE BURDEN"

THE BURDEN

©Ron Burres, 2018

(thoughts of Palm Sunday)

I walked steadily along the way

My small hooves cushioned

Easing the weight upon my back

Humans crowding close to me

Shouting and yelling praises

As they covered my path that day

I noticed the trees all barren now

Their fronds strewn along my way

Once crowned and so adorned

Now stripped and standing naked

Foretelling what was preordained

That of Mankind being reborn again

Somehow I knew my reason for being

Was to bear this weight upon my back

An act destined before time began

That I should carry this sacrificial lamb

To give up His life and then to live again

The weight on my back seemed to lighten now

I realized how light my load compared to His

He would carry a cross covered in man’s sin

His precious blood spent in purchase of forgiveness

A heavy, heavy burden.

TO ALL WHO BEAR MY DNA

Today I decided to start my new endeavor, adding it to the all-ready stack of things to do before my clock stops ticking. I never seem to know what will act as a catalyst and today it was another poem ticking away in my attic.  When I first started writing, way back when just about all of my inspirations came from my own pain or the pain I envisioned others were having. 

From the bandstand I was able to see a myriad of life and lives in all stages of growth and decay.  One such observation brought about one of my songs, a touch of empathy I would suspect, mixed with the observation and fear of stepping on the wrong path.

That fool is Me, (http://ronsmarbles.blogspot.com/2018/03/that-fool-is-me.html  )

The spark today seemed to have hit much closer to home, causing me to do a priority check on my to-do list.  All of a sudden the items “get my children to forgive me” and “help anyone who cares, to know me” jumped up on the list by substantial numbers.

WHO ARE YOU © Ron Burres    3/18/2018

I stood there looking at him, quizzically

As if I had just recognized him from the past.

He seemed so different than when I had seen him last. 

His eyes had changed, they weren’t the same

It was like looking into a fire that had no flame.

He was much older than I remember

Such a change from spring to December

It always surprises me how we neglect to see

All those many things we don’t want to be

I guess it just so much easier if we just look

Today as I looked into his eyes

Into the depths of his heart and soul

I saw the pain of not knowing what best to do

The sorrow of lost chance smothered by time

Unable to show how much he loves you.

"THAT FOOL IS ME"

That Fool is Me

© Ron Burres July 10, 1981 Wilsonville, OR

As I sit here alone on this barstool

And stare across at the mirror

I see the old face of a fool I once knew

Who now hangs his head in despair

(chorus) I wonder just what had to happen

                To  take the fire from his eyes

Was it the loneliness of all those years

Or just his tears when he cries

I see him through eyes blurred from drinkin’

And to many hours without sleep

I see the old face of a fool I once knew

Who seems to burnt to even care

(Who now seems to burnt to care)

His hair is all gray and matted

From sleepin’ outside in the streets

His coat is all torn and tattered

Lord, it looks like the one

Wrapped round me

(spoken) I watch him think back thru his years, His face it looks befuddled, as he tries to place where he’s at.

 I see the face of an old fool I once knew. I just can’t remember from where.

1. THE JOURNEY or OMG WHAT WAS I THINKING

Years ago I started a poem, one that would look at the birth sequence and the life of a human being.  It was going to be an epic poem that pertained and looked at the travels a person went through during his life.  Well like so many other projects it has gone neglected and covered with dust and cobwebs.
This whole Don't Lose My Marbles project was an undertaking designed to give my offspring and theirs some kind of understanding of one half of whom they sprang from..  So I have now decided that the Journey project will continue not as an epic poem but as some semblance of a journal as seen through the memory, (rapidly failing as it may be), with as much honesty as I can grasp ahold of today.
          OMG WHAT WAS I THINKING
THE JOURNEY BEGINS (c) Ron Burres

A jolt

Conception,   A joining of energy.

Life energy flowing quickly,

Molecules transformed into being.

Energy’s choice, This womb, This place.

Putting away past banks of memory,

To experience difference, change,

 Another life, to be born anew,

Another life journey I begin.

2

Is it again

Hints of past being fade

In their place rhythmic motion

A flowing ebbing sensation

Energy of another flowing through I

Not of I, but joining with.

Then experience

Throbbing sound, a giant heart, 

Pumping life fluid to I,

Awareness of warmth, safety, security

Surrounded by embryonic shell and womb.

3

As I grows

Awareness of something more

Thoughts coming not from I

But yet into and becoming part

Influencing the I

Suddenly

There is fear.  I know I am not wanted

How strong that is known

There now a part, how to be loved

I will gain all that is needed.

What is is existence. 

The journey begins.

GOOD FRIDAY 2017

Another Good Friday (that makes 77 of them). This one turned a light on in my mind.  It seems strange that after so many years of going through the Easter and Lenten rigors of my Catholic upbringing and schooling, the message of what Christ endured had escaped me.  This week I made an effort to read the Gospel of Mark in which he spoke of the life of Christ on through the Crucifixion.  Today I read the part regarding His passion and the pain that he endured.

In the past in reading and listening to what took place in the last few hours of that phase of his life, it was always about the humiliation and the physical abuse our Lord went through.  Today it struck me just how much He must have loved us.  Throughout the teaching of Christ, his message was not only of looking toward the Father but He also was very emphatic about loving our neighbor.  Many of His parables spoke of those who cared for the welfare of others, the power of forgiveness and second chance.

Later on during the veneration of the Stations of the Cross, coupled with a message given earlier during service at the Vatican, a thought began to germinate in this old mind and heart.

The what Christ endured for certain has an impact but in reality that is the exclamation point to the fact of the amount of Love that it would require for any being to knowingly put themselves in a situation that horrific.  Christ did that to purchase forgiveness for us.  Christ allowed that to happen because he hated sin so much he could not allow sin to be victorious.  The pain and anguish he suffered was no doubt far less than what he experienced during his stay in hell prior to his resurrection.  Yet, foreseeing all that, He loved us, we sinners, so much that He gave Himself up as ransom.  He knew we were unable to earn Heaven without that payment.

I think His message is the same as it was during His life on earth as He forgave so many, the woman at the well, Mary Magdalene, and even those who brought about his execution.  Remember him calling out “Forgive them Father for they know not what they do.”  As we strive to follow His example, let me please do at least this much.

Let me hate only the sin and never the sinner.  Let me condemn only the sin and never the sinner.  Let me always know that I have a soul bought and paid for with the greatest love ever known to mankind.  Thank you Jesus