Lonely Cottage

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  “Among the few features of agricultural England which retain an appearance but little modified by the lapse of centuries, may be reckoned the high, grassy and furzy downs, coombs, or ewe-leases, as they are indifferently called, that fill a large area of certain counties in the south and south-west. If any mark of human occupation is met with hereon, it usually takes the form of the solitary cottage of some shepherd. Fifty years ago such a lonely cottage stood on such a down, and may possibly be standing there now. In spite of its loneliness, however, the spot, by actual measurement, was not more than five miles from a county-town. Yet that affected it little. Five miles of irregular upland, during the long inimical seasons, with their sleets, snows, rains, and mists, afford withdrawing space enough to isolate a Timon or a Nebuchadnezzar; much less, in fair weather, to please that less repellent tribe, the poets, philosophers, artists, and others who “conceive and meditate of ple...

Kyrie Eleison

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Where were you on January 1, 1985? It's a far reach back, but that's the date this song was released:



"Kyrie" (or in the Greek, Κύριε, from Κύριος) means "Lord," so the phrase means "Lord have mercy." The phrase harkens back to prayers in the 1st Century, A.D. 

The song came back to my memory while shopping, as I reflecting on the recent changes in our lives. And the song seemed fitting. 

First, I started work last week at a True Value Hardware store. The short version is that I am being groomed to be assistant manager of the that location (in workload, but not in title). Things are moving quickly there. Of course, it's a far cry from what I was doing before, at least I'm working. I lost 6 pound the first week, so that's a thing too. 

Second, just before I started my new job, I got a tick bite. I am presently resting and waiting for test results for Lyme disease, although symptoms are now leaning more toward Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Regardless, the treatment is the same and I've started those antibiotics. It's things like this that keep our fragile, mortal humanity before our eyes. 

So one can see now how the song might bring a level of remembering and contemplation at this time. 

Alive to breathe another day . . . and grateful.

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