The Frozen River of Time

The past never dies, it just freezes, and it trails along behind us

In the frozen river of time like the long tail of a blazing comet.

It is the finger of fate that writes upon the wall and then moves on.

It is the history of our past and cannot be erased by piety nor wit.

Everyone has a record in this history, some long and some short.

It is a record of our world line and all of the squiggles thereupon.

Be mindful of what fate may record in your haphazard biography.

Be careful about what you say and do and to whom you do it to.

Make good choices now so that you won't have to wince later.

We are marching in a grand parade through time immemorial,

Where countless millions have gone before and millions go after.

Many try to leave a mark so that they will never be forgotten.

What will the last one do when there are no more to remember?

Perhaps those fortunate who make it to Paradise will be able to

Watch it all again like episodes of a long streaming video series.

After all, we will have plenty of eternity to watch reruns.

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Look forward, not backward!

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of the Holy Spirit.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
Seek not to make them just like you,
For life goes forward and not backward.
They don't care about your memories.
They care only about their own desires.
You are the bows from which your children
Are sent forward as living arrows.
Pray that your arrows go swift and far
And meet the mark that the Lord intended,
For even as He loves the arrows that fly,
He also loves the bow that is good and true. 

​(Bob Mrotek 2024)

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Year after year...

Year after year the material desires we long for recede before us

Into the future and we, with arms outstretched, chase after them.

The sad thing about loving material things is they can't love you back.

The "American Dream" as some people call it, the dream of solvency

And equality with liberty and justice for all, will never come true.

Life is not a bitcoin. Time is the one true currency.

When you look up at the clock it's already suppertime;

When you look up at the calendar it's the end of the month;

When you look up, the year is over and many years have passed!

Once a year we hold a festival and all with one accord unite

In brotherly affection and good will, and afterward the rat race continues.

And so we beat on against the current, borne back ceaselessly.

As it was so, it will ever be, and as it first began, so it continues.

But...It doesn't matter how hopeless to us that life may seem.

Don't let a day pass without an effort to make the world a better place.

More shall be given to those who give of themselves.  

For peace and harmony and the greater glory of our Creator.

Between stimulus and response there is a space, and

In that space is our free will power to choose good or evil,

And how we respond determines our freedom and eternal life.

We must love God with our whole heart, and soul, and mind,

And love our neighbors through non-violent self-sacrifice.

Therein lies the mystery. The answer lies in fervent prayer.

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The Hallmark of Creation

 

My parents are no longer with us on this Earth

But the echoes of their voices are locked in my heart.

At night I hide from the world, searching for peace.

The raging storms of reality that invade my mind

Tend to cancel my dreams and awaken my anxiety.

Is peace just a dream or will it be possible after all.  

We are all students here, every single one of us.

Our understanding will never be totally complete.

Fear alone ensures that we remain quite ignorant

And fast asleep in the arms of ancestral tradition.

I don't want to live in some hum-drum past where

There is nothing new under the sun and sky.

Let's keep to the tried and true but at the same time

Open our eyes to the amazing and unexpected

Surprises that God may have in store for us,

I can't believe that the Creator has stopped creating.

The hallmark of creation is continuous improvement.

Let our collective effort be for the greater glory of God.

"Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam," (For God's Greater Glory).

If this makes us progressive, then so let it be.

(Bob Mrotek 2023)

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Tears of Regret

The miracle of my birth is to me sufficient proof of a Creator.
And so I am duty bound and determined to lead a moral life 
For the greater glory of God, that there be no regrets.
But, alas, I have not escaped regrets, so what can I do? 
Whenever I think that I have the answer to this problem,
It changes form like the patterns in a kaleidoscope,
Here is a man who is earnestly seeking enlightenment,
While drowning in his own folly and unreasonable expectations.
I spend days and nights haunted by my inadequacies and errors
Bringing to mind the memories of those whom I may have offended,
Beseeching them to answer me and forgive my trespasses,
For many a man is slain by the destiny of his own making.
There are three kinds of tears associated with emotion.
They are tears of joy, tears of sadness, and tears of regret.
The first two are like raindrops falling from the eyes.
They are deeply heartfelt but slowly dissipate with time.
The third are tears of blood that drip, drip, drip from the heart.
They are the bloody tears of regret that never go away.
Even Saint Peter was not immune. His tears of  regret began
When the rooster crowed after he denied Our Lord three times.
The tears of regret are the guardrails of moral reality, 
They are reminders that the wages of sin are death, but
The gift of God is forgiveness by way of repentance
And the peace of mind and heart that go with it thereafter.
Go in peace brothers and sisters and may God be with you.
(Bob Mrotek 2023)

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Between the Blinks

You blink and you find yourself in the November of your life.

Between the blinks, your children grew up, your parents died,

And many old friends are no longer living or have moved on.

You blink between the worry, and the work, and the money spent,

And the dreams that you put away for "sometime when you can."

When we blink too fast, we miss a laugh, a hug, and one last "I love you."

What if we stop blinking so much and take mental snapshots of our life?

Look after the children when they do their homework. Teach them.

Look at your spouses in a quiet moment and seek to understand them.

Look at your mothers and fathers if they are still around and cherish them.

Spend time with relatives and friends and seek out the good in them.

Be as joyful as you can during this time and don't waste the opportunity.

Yes, time will pass, by and by, but looking back, "in the blink of an eye,"

Not even death can take away the moments of our happiness.

They will keep us company on the journey to heaven and eternal life.  

(Bob Mrotek 2023)

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On the Eve of World Chaos

Experience is the mother of all sciences and revelation is a form of reason.
When bad fortune shuts the door to what we are seeking,
Providence opens a new door through reason to a better experience.
If we fail to open the door to progress and new horizons,
It is not the fault of Providence that we stagnate, but ours alone.
There is no proverb that doesn't carry some truth with it for
Proverbs are drawn from experience, the "Mother of Invention," as it were.
After all, "science fiction" is the seed of all science, is it not?
Vengeance is not the way to right a wrong because it is based on desire.
The first rule of civilization is Peace and only non-violence and self sacrifice will do.
If it need be that vengeance is required, it belongs to our merciful but just Creator.
We must always seek peaceful coexistence, unless Heaven ordains otherwise.
I let out a long sigh of supplication and send it to Heaven as a prayer:
Oh, Lord, when will we ever learn, if it be Thy will that we ever do?
Our Father who art in Heaven, when will Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done? 

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Stay in the "now."

Time is a human concept. It is all relative

To where we are on the map of the Universe.

Speed = distance divided by human time,

Distance = speed × human time, and  

Human time = distance divided by speed.

Our days are measured by the rotation of the Earth

And the circumnavigation of Earth around the Sun.

The Earth doesn't know how old it is and neither

Does the Sun or the Moon, and they don't care.

They just obey the will of their Creator.

We leave human time only when we choose to.

That's why time "flies" when we are having fun.

Some of us care a lot about human time. Why?

Because we hate to be late for our own funeral?

A poor life it is, if we are not aware of timelessness.

We still have plenty of time to stop. think, and

Search out God and the nature of time and space.

What is "now"? It is like one tic-toc on the human clock.

Do caterpillars know that they will be butterflies,

Or do they just build themselves a coffin, go to sleep,

And wake up later, delightfully surprised?

Join the congregation of what's happening now!

Don't worry. Be happy. Stay in the "now".

All of the time. It's about time!

(Bob Mrotek 2023)

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Every Day of Your Life

Every day of your life, look 

For better ways to get better.

Think positive, work hard,

Have fun, and make it happen.

Don't squander your energy

On people who don't like you, or 

On trying to impress others, or

On things you can't control, or

On building castles in the air, or

On things you can't learn from.

To be taken seriously, be consistent.

Don't waste other people's time.

Before you speak - Listen 

Before you pray - Meditate

Before you spend - Earn 

Before you act - Think

Before you sign - Read

Before you take - Give

Before you quit - Try   

Later, it is already too late!

Hope for the best,

But prepare for the worst,  

And the most important thing,

Keep peace in your heart.

(Bob Mrotek 2023)

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Look within yourself to find the truth

When you finally get to the top of your climb you really can't enjoy it.

Because from the top, everything that you see is at your feet.

And you realize that every material thing that goes up must come down.

When you get to the top of the heap there is no more top to go to.

Winners must always keep in mind that losing is just around the corner.

Every spark of life on earth contains our Lord's divine light.

Look within yourself to find it. He isn't as far from you as you are from Him.

If you have love for yourself then embrace everyone else as family.

This is the basic form of worship because we are all brothers and sisters.

Many seemingly upright men and women are afflicted with sexual desires.

The quest for the nature of life, the "sensus communis," the seat of the soul,

Is centered in the human brain, a great system of connected things,

With the essence of being, at its core, as it is above, so it is below.

The spiritual center of a human being is focused on the naval.

The material center of a human being is focused on the genitals.

The real truth is not necessarily what people believe, or not.

They believe what they want to believe that does not conflict tradition.

Politicians and corporations strive to engineer the beliefs of the masses.

They create illusions so great that they are accepted as the truth.

When synthetic diamonds become indistinguishable from "true" diamonds,

They become accepted as true and then the real truth loses all meaning.  

(Bob Mrotek 2023)

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