INTRODUCTION

My name is Robert Lynn Brown.  By way of this blog spot, I will share selected personal insights and spiritual thoughts that I have collected over a lifetime.  Some are distilled from my teaching and life experiences.  Others derive from the  Holy Scriptures or spin-off from the thoughts and insights of others which have resonated strongly with me.

As I begin this exercise, I am in my 85th year, having grown up on a dairy farm, taught school for a decade and served for 30 years in the US Foreign Service.  Twenty years into retirement I have published a book of poetry and my autobiography.  My hobbies are writing and my garden -- but more than those, my extended family:  six children and five step-children and their spouses, 31 grandchildren and 16 step-grandchildren, plus 24 (and counting) great grandchildren.   I have been richly blessed.
Whatever else might be said of me, I am a work in progress.

            LIFE LINES

This map of wrinkles that I see

when I look in the mirror; ... who is he?

I wonder if the patterns graven

on this physiognomy

may have something more to tell

than simply mark my family tree.

If you could read these furrows

and the footnotes in between,

would you know the roads I=ve traveled

and the wonders I have seen?

Could you weigh the loads I=ve carried

and the cares I=ve known;

see my failures and my triumphs;

taste the fruit from seeds I=ve sown?

Can you hear the fading echoes

of the songs that I have sung;

or overtones of joy in me

from chords my progeny have rung?

Might you sense my good intentions;

half-achieved or not begun?

Is there any credit posted

for the deeds I would have done?

Could there also be encoded

in this picture that I see,

outlines of unwritten chapters;

forecasts of harvests yet to be?

Though no one else may notice,

I hope that Christ, perchance,

may see something of His Image

in this weathered countenance.

And if naught else be encrypted

in this fleshly facial file,

I pray you=ll see my love for Him

who walks with me the while.

     (c)Robert Lynn Brown

Comments or questions concerning my writings would be welcomed: arelby2@juno.com.