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Sketch: To The Lake ©️2024 Author: R. Joe Dieleman Photo: R. Joe Dieleman - Lake Michigan

Sketch: Cat Man Can’t Author: R. Joe Dieleman ©️ 2024 Photo: R. Joe Dieleman Doom

Sketch: Pilfer Free Author: R. Joe Dieleman ©️2025 Photo: Marcia Dieleman Orchid in Stone

Sketch: Liaise ©️ 2025 Author: R. Joe Dieleman Photo: R. Joe Dieleman

Liaise A Sketch by R. Joe Dieleman

A charm of hummingbirds converged to feed each other on the nectar of sweet communion. However, the insidious inroad of a failure to hear stonewalled their fellowship. Fortunately, it overcame their suspicion of curious humans so, let's listen in to their feeble attempt to collaborate, quipping as they darted in and out of their drum circle:

"Serious students are all hunchbacks." "Indecisive ones flatter every idea they discover." "We flatter ourselves if we value smallness." "Bulging organisms waste energy stretching their flesh." "Are you saying an oversized student is unflattering?" "No, but there is harm in sitting next to oneself." "That's why I don't like looking in the mirror." "Too much self reflection?" "Too much background confusing my focus." "A certain amount of blur is part of our nature." "Wings are one thing, definitions are another." "Are you going to buzz on about lines of demarcation again?" "Isn't that what we've been talking about?" "Only if we want to alienate each other." "That's what delineations do."

We couldn't help but notice that when one adage besmirched another, withdraw to hover with nose in the air was their defensive maneuver.

Upon later reflection, perhaps it was just sibling contention or sports which bring out the worst in competitive people and hummers, preventing them from enjoying a liaise. Whatever it was, It certainly wasn't true religion that fuses souls together in love. As Yahweh the Son said to Yahweh the Father regarding their disciples: "May they be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”