The Three Francescos

A man with an umbrella walks in the rain past the former Saint Francis of Assisi convent, now a museum, in Old Havana, Cuba, on July 24.

Me and my friend Barbara Gabriel

In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel

love I get so lost, sometimes
days pass and this emptiness fills my heart
when I want to run away
I drive off in my car
but whichever way I go
I come back to the place you are

all my instincts, they return
and the grand facade, so soon will burn
without a noise, without my pride
I reach out from the inside

in your eyes
the light the heat
in your eyes
I am complete
in your eyes
I see the doorway to a thousand churches
in your eyes
the resolution of all the fruitless searches
in your eyes
I see the light and the heat
in your eyes
oh, I want to be that complete
I want to touch the light
the heat I see in your eyes

love, I don't like to see so much pain
so much wasted and this moment keeps slipping away
I get so tired of working so hard for our survival
I look to the time with you to keep me awake and alive

and all my instincts, they return
and the grand facade, so soon will burn
without a noise, without my pride
I reach out from the inside

in your eyes
the light the heat
in your eyes
I am complete
in your eyes
I see the doorway to a thousand churches
in your eyes
the resolution of all the fruitless searches
in your eyes
I see the light and the heat
in your eyes
oh, I want to be that complete
I want to touch the light,
the heat I see in your eyes
in your eyes in your eyes
in your eyes in your eyes
in your eyes in your eyes

When I Have Not Rage by Leonard Cohen

When I have not rage or sorrow, and you depart from me, then I am most afraid. When the belly is full, and the mind has its sayings, then I fear for my soul; I rush to you as a child at night breaks into its parents’ room. Do not forget me in my satisfaction. When the heart grins at itself, the world is destroyed. And I am found alone with the husks and the shells. Then the dangerous moment comes; I am too great to ask for help. I have other hopes. I legislate from the fortress of my disappointments, with a set jaw. Overthrow this even terror with a sweet remembrance: when I was with you, when my soul delighted you, when I was what you wanted. My heart sings of your longing for me, and my thoughts climb down to marvel at your mercy. I do not fear as you gather up my days. Your name is the sweetness of time, and you carry me close into the night, speaking consolations, drawing down lights from the sky, saying, See how the night has no terror for one who remembers the Name.

The Dove by Leonard Cohen

(painting is: The Dove whisperer by Renate Dartois)


I saw the dove come down, the dove with the green twig, the childish dove out of the storm and flood. It came toward me in the style of the Holy Spirit descending. I had been sitting in a café for twenty-five years waiting for this vision. It hovered over the great quarrel. I surrendered to the iron laws of the moral universe which make a boredom out of everything desired. Do not surrender, said the dove. I have come to make a nest in your shoe. I want your step to be light.

Leonard Cohen

A Place of Love

Why are we so concerned with how and who we love?
I’m more concerned with how and who we hate.
I know, I know, it runs contrary to the
Will of God – As if any of us can really know that.
I know, I know, if it was 500 years earlier,
I’d be branded a heretic and made to suffer
The consequences – which wouldn’t be pretty.
Well I may not know the will of God,
But I know what Jesus said – “Love thy neighbor”
And who is my neighbor? You are.
So when you see me beaten and bleeding for my
Heretical thoughts – Pour wine and oil on my wounds.
And take me to a place of love.

This morning I lit a candle with no particular reason in mind

I called the picture "The Candle of Hope"
It's a hope for many things, too numerous to mention
But one I will divulge
It's a hope for You and I My Love
And the hope of a warm September evening
This is our small flame
Let's turn it into a bonfire
That burns bright and hot
Sensual and delightful
Long and glorious

What I'm Reading - Daniel Berrigan: Essential Writings (Modern Spiritual Masters Series)

“Our apologies, good friends, for the fracture of good order, the burning of paper instead of children, the angering of the orderlies in the front parlor of the charnel house. We could not, so help us God, do otherwise.”
Daniel Berrigan

Daniel Berrigan is a Jesuit priest, poet, and peacemaker, whose words and actions over the past 50 years have offered a powerful witness to the God of Life. Fr. Berrigan, along with his brother Philip, was one of the Catonsville 9, arrested and imprisoned in 1968 for destroying draft files in a protest against the Vietnam War. But this was only one step along a journey of faith. Through this selection from his many books, journals, poems, and homilies, a chronicle of Berrigan’s life and work unfolds, from the early steps in his vocation, to his decision to cross the line and go to prison, his ongoing witness for peace, and his extraordinary commentaries on scripture and the life of radical discipleship.
(From the back cover of the book)

Available on amazon.com

At the Pali Lookout

Feeling tired and empty

Sometimes it's just so hard to get going in the morning after a restless night's sleep. Too many short disturbing dreams. Too much isolation. Too much me.

Activities at the Mace house

Eating Dinner

Watering the Plants

Listening to Music

Making Morning Coffee

The Evolving Home

Evening on the lanai in Kahala, Hawaii

Early Sunday morning on the lanai

The New Look of the Upper Room

The Bar is now open!

A Special Rosary for a Friend

Thanks Kimo.