rollin' round the bend

Something I love about being home is the sound of the trains, which I notice usually at nighttime. I guess I've always loved trains, but I don't think that was a conscious love until I looked back through an old pre-teen journal and I had listed a bunch of things to do with my life, one being take a train across the country,"--which I kinda did coming back home from Bend. (Portland--Chicago--KC over three blissful days of rolling monotony and traveler's anonymity.)

Anyway, the continuous sounds of the trains in the night make me think of this that I read in an Anthony de Mello book:

When Brother Bruno was at prayer one night, he was disturbed by the croaking of a bullfrog.

All his attempts to disregard the sound were unsuccessful, so he shouted from his window, "Quiet! I'm at my prayers."

Now Brother Bruno was a saint, so his command was instantly obeyed. Every living creature held its voice so as to create a silence that would be favorable to prayer.

But now another sound intruded on Bruno's worship—an inner voice that said, "Maybe God is as pleased with the croaking of that frog as with the chanting of your psalms."

"What can please the ears of God in the croak of a frog?" was Bruno's scornful rejoinder.

But the voice refused to give up. "Why would you think God invented the sound?"

Bruno decided to find out why. He leaned out of his window and gave the order, "Sing!"

The bullfrog's measured croaking filled the air to the ludicrous accompaniment of all the frogs in the vicinity.

And as Bruno attended to the sound, their voices ceased to jar, for he discovered that, if he stopped resisting them, they actually enriched the silence of the night.

With that discovery Bruno's heart became harmonious with the universe, and, for the first time in his life, he understood what it means to pray.

And, on another note, also this...


and as the original poster of this video says, sorry for the sideways-ness. The sound quality is quite good though.