Talismans – Skull

Greetings Dear Reader,

Let me say first that the skull in my office is not a real one.  It is a very accurate model.  It was a gift from someone who gets me.  The skull serves as a memento mori; a reminder of death.

Phillipe de Champaigne, Vanitas (c. 1671)

Before you think me morbid or morose please consider that this has been a practice for centuries.  It is a reminder that every day could be my last.  It is a reminder to use the time I have for Christ and for those around me. 

Every man owes a death.  Death is there to remind us that we must use the time we have.  It is both a blessing and a curse.  It reminds us that we are not free.  It reminds us that we are free.  Both are true.  We are on the journey back to God.  Death is the moment of completion. 

It is my responsibility to use the time between birth and death to love God and love those around me.  Everything else is subtext to that end.  It is each day that I am given to live for which I am thankful.  It is the talisman of the skull that reminds me to really live.

Ghosts – Dan Fogelberg

Sometimes in the night I feel it

Near as my next breath and yet untouchable

Silently the past comes stealing

Like the taste of some forbidden sweet

Along the walls in shadowed rafters

Moving like a thought through haunted atmospheres

Muted cries and echoed laughter

Banished dreams that never sank in sleep

Lost in love and found in reason

Questions that the mind can find no answers for

Ghostly eyes conspire treason

As they gather just outside the door

And every ghost that calls upon us

Brings another measure in the mystery

Death is there to keep us honest

And constantly remind us we aren't free

Down the ancient corridors

And through the gates of time

Run the ghosts of days that we've left behind

Down the ancient corridors

And through the gates of time

Run the ghosts of dreams that we left behind

Sometimes in the night I feel it

Near as my next breath and yet untouchable

Silently the past comes stealing

Like the taste of some forbidden sweet 

And every ghost that calls upon us

Brings another measure in the mystery

Death is there to keep us honest

And constantly remind us we are free

Down the ancient corridors

And through the gates of time

Run the ghosts of days that we've left behind

Down the ancient corridors

And through the gates of time

Run the ghosts of dreams that we left behind

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

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