Morning news via papers, online, or TV can make us feel the world is about to collapse. Politics, wars, starving children in Palestine and Ukraine, new nuclear concerns, can turn one’s morning into several hours of dismay before bacon and eggs hit the pan!
Often I follow the news, or precede it, with reading something spiritual, biblical, or refreshing. Recently, Plotinus’ understanding of the One, the Soul, and the Intellect has gotten my attention. The Bible and a dozen other books also sit beside my bed, ever ready to inspire. Little selections from one or two each morning makes the clamor of news seem less hysterical. What I read and think about puts the news into perspective, prevents me from jumping out a window.
It’s a little thing to take a few minutes each morning to read inspiring words. But what a difference it makes. It needn’t take longer than a newscast, but it fills one up with good in a way no news can. Such a miraculous little thing: to read something good and true, divine even, something that reminds us to love as we go about our day, to see there is more to us, and everyone, than meets the eye. Problems seem solvable. Holding everyone in a loving frame of reference heals.
Today I read the Bible story of Ruth, a Moabite, who, when her husband died, chose to graciously leave her homeland to follow her mother-in-law to Israel, saying, “Thy people shall be my people, and thy God, my God.” I read, too, how we are all one people, that to love one another is why we exist. In Luke I read: “Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.” I read about the good Samaritan who did just that by helping a stranger in distress. I read in Acts where we are told God “Made of one blood all nations of men” and in Isaiah where it says “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”
Wow! I viewed every news claim differently after what I read!
It’s a little thing to read inspiring words in the morning. Wisdom is waiting for us. The only little thing we have to do is read it, think about it, and do our best to live it. And that’s big!
Morning Song, framed oil, 8″ x 8,” $195 by Gwendolyn Evans
Artwork: Morning Song, framed oil, 8″ x 8,” $195. Among my most recent pieces, this little oil is part of a series of small works I’ve done in February and March 2024. I prefer to work large, but am finding not everyone has room nor money for large pieces, so I’ve included much smaller paintings in my work. Oils and watercolors as large as 3 feet or more will always be part of my collective works–think of “Colossus” which accompanies my posting No. 127 for this site, one of my largest (and most favorite) watercolors at 3 1/2 feet wide. But this little work above, Morning Song, though small, has as grand a message, reminding me of early Spring mornings when Maine birds sing lovely and loud enough to wake a sound sleeper and set her on a nature walk.