Spring is here. It has… IS… arriving. How do I know? Because every day I take a brisk walk and everyday there are more examples of LIFE. Beauty is blossoming everywhere I turn.

How do I know?

Because there is this horrid virus lurking in corners and also amongst the wide open spaces and it has forced a semi house arrest. And in week 4, (frankly, week 1.5), television in its various uncreative app incarnations has blissfully proven itself to be inferior to books, art, music and contemplation.

Contemplation.

I learned the musical version of the Chaplet of Divine Mercy prayer and now it’s in my musical heart. I can’t get enough of it. I found the chords but they didn’t jibe with the chords in my heart so I chose the ones that did. And now I play & pray. Just me and my uke. Then I found myself on GarageBand that has eluded me for years. So I just sang á cappella assisted by the reverb dial.

What should be unsurprising and predictable was accompanied by the entrance of the world, the world, the prince of this world who entices me to DO something with it. He parades down his vomitorium with the usual text:

It’s not good enough. You’re not good enough. Where will you play it? Where will you post it? Perfect perfect perFECT IT. But… really, what’s the point. You’re not good enough. (Rinse, repeat.)

But TV doesn’t entice me to be distracted anymore so I take a bath in silence.

Nope, no Audible. No Podcast.

I sort this out. Contemplate.

And then the Still Small Voice imprints upon me: It doesn’t have to be for anything other than the fact that you love it for the sake of My Name.

I get it down in print before I forget this Truth.

And now, Friend, I share it with you:

It doesn’t have to be for anything

other than the fact

that you love it

for the sake of His Name.…

And that is a Divine Mercy.