Aphorisms

1.  When persons of good character vote, angels are not guaranteed, but when they don't vote we get demons.
2.  Live your life so that at the end you can say that you lived not without some purpose.
3. As you write each chapter in the book of your life be guided by the blessings you have given and those you have received. 

Hope

I’ve had hopes but now my hopes

Are like little children spinning until they fall over

I don’t think I’ll live to see the things I want to see

But I am living to see things I never wanted to see

Things once unimaginable now no longer shock

Now they are statistics and we use their headlines as click bait

And I keep thinking that it’s all so simple, all we need to do is not

Go backwards

To just hold on if we are not going forwards

To stand still if we can’t move forward, so that an injustice

Once gone stays gone

But it is easier to hide injustice than to eliminate it

And a hidden injustice still saps the spirit of those who dream

And still feeds the spirit of those who feel most alive when they hate

But then I remember that one does not need hope in a perfect world

Hope arises in an imperfect world

Hope is the desire to do better to be kinder to be more loving

Hope is the force that lightens the darkness around us

Hope is for the future

Hope will never die

And hope will forever bend the arc of the moral universe toward justice

Poem For a Dog's Passing

Portia, who always gave more than she knew how to take,

Has passed into the loving care of the single Shepherd

Who has welcomed her to her perfect world

Where the lush, green hills roll endlessly in warm sunlight

And the rabbits run so fast she almost can’t catch them

And the day doesn’t end until she falls into sweet and restful sleep

With her heart full of joy

To dream of those she left behind

Until the rabbits wake her up to run again