The Banzai Chronicles

Late lunch/early dinner at Chazen. Since it changed names from the Blue Willow Tea House, my favorite waitresses are gone, the music is absent, and the dharma rolls have shrunk in size and quantity for the same price. My visits here will likely not be so frequent, which will be healthier to the checkbook as well.

(Of course, as I wrote this, the proprietor came by to offer me a pastry. I am a forgiving soul once pastry is introduced to the equation.)

Staff meeting was cancelled this morning, and Enterprise night will be a solo affair this evening (Connor and Sara are in England, and taci will be on her way to the wilds of Idaho). It is also grey and cool today. I would be more the fool if I failed to recognize how He is wooing and caring for me in this hour.

There are silences that are empty, silences that are full, and silences that bear the edge of both. In the last case, there is a choice to be made, a decision on what to believe even when the question of why to believe it cannot be simply settled. Hope, when it is present, makes the choice, and the silence is no longer so very fearful. Tones of comfort and courage echo through spaces that seemed dry and tight, answering questions which threaten to undo a man.

My meal is now finished, and hope has made a choice.