poetry...thoughts for today...





















just live!
Moral certainties make my hair
stand on end, especially when expounded
by those who seem to thrive on drawing
battle lines and boundaries…
whose goal seems separation and one-upmanship
instead of reconciliation and compromise.
Absolutes invite hypocrisy, as we have
often seen among the “famous” of our day,
as revelation of another’s feet of clay is
met by judgment, anger, and buoyed by
a sense of superiority by those whose own
humanity has yet to be revealed.
Life, my friend, is messy and confusion-
and far too short to make it about
“either-or”, “for-against”, “us or them”…
no “one size fits all” garment covers
every situation…no simple set of rules
applies- unless it is the “rule” of love.
For life’s complexity demands our openness…
our acceptance of people different from
ourselves…our unwillingness to change
our minds and hearts when living proves
us wrong…
           Improvise! Life cries. Create! Imagine! Celebrate!
                    LIVE!!! Just LIVE!!!

prayer…
Let’s talk about prayer.
What if- instead of God intervening
in our lives in response to our prayers, our pleadings,
our requests- God/the Divine/the Ineffable Holy
provides the medium through which
our prayers move?

What if we believed, accepted, lived into the 
truths of which quantum physicists speak? that 
all of life is connected, entangled, linked, and 
when I send my love, my care, my blessings, my concern 
to you via my “prayers”, my thoughts and energies 
are traveling the link, using the connections, reaching 
you in truth because of these mysterious, mystical, Divine
entanglements?

Does that make it any less prayer?
Or any less the work of the Divine?    
                I wonder…


religion?
Re-ligare, that early Latin word
from which “religion” and “religious”
come, meant- in those early Latin days-
      to re-connect, to re-member
          what has been dis-membered…
      to return to our deepest, truest selves,
          remembering what we already know.

How, then, has religion become
something which divides,
      which dis-members
         the family of humanity,
           pitting sister against sister,
           brother against brother, 
         tribe against tribe, until even
           heaven has its teeth set on edge by the
           cacophony of warring certainties,
                each striving for the hearts and souls
                of humankind…
                each certain that its answers
             are THE answers…

      while angels weep and
        all creation bears the battle scars
        of humans run amok,
        as the loving, reconciling voice
        of the Divine One
        goes unheard.

holy, holy, holy
Have we “made” Jesus divine in order
to explain his full holiness and dedication
to a life with God?
And is this a way to let ourselves off the
hook from developing such a deep, true
relationship with God ourselves?
When will we recognize and acknowledge,
I wonder, that we are all holy, created
as we are in God’s own image? So much
easier to see some as holier-than-us…
so much less demanding to see holiness
as something far beyond our grasp,
beyond our ability to ever achieve- as if
the God of Creation is not continuously,
perpetually, eternally reaching out to
us in love and compassion.
Denying our own holiness denies the
mystery of the mundane…the sacred
in the secular…the incandescent wonder
of incarnation- God dwelling within each
one of us, calling each one of us into
relationship, unique and wholly holy.
Yet we seek and search, wail and
wonder, “Where is God in all this mess
of life?” missing the truth- that God is
everywhere! And our holiness comes
from immersing ourselves in the God
Who is Everywhere.

For what does God expect of us-
if indeed we can put it that way- 
but to “do justice, love kindness, and
walk humbly with God”…to be fully who
we are meant to be, created to be-
each and every one of us. For if we
do not see God everywhere, in
everyone, are we not denying the
all-pervasive reality of God’s holy
presence in, through, and under
all creation? I wonder…

decision-making power
Who decides how things are
“supposed” to be? Who has made the
determination that having white skin
is better than having black? That
being male and having testicles is
preferable to being female and
having a uterus which can bear life?
That bringing a child into the world
to be neglected and abused is morally
superior to choosing to not have it at all?
That by denying something you do not
want to believe is true over and over and
over again, you can make your opinion
reality?

Who decides what is truly “true”? For
once some believed (some still do)
that slavery was right- denied that people
with a darker skin were even really
“human”, seeing them as unthinking,
unfeeling creatures. Once some
believed (some still do) that women
were the property of men, fit only to
do the bidding, bend to the will of
father or husband, denying their 
intellects, denigrating their minds.
Once some believed (some still do)
that homosexuality was a sinful choice-
seeing those whose sexuality was
different from their own as threats
to home and hearth and family.

Who make the rules and sets the limits,
doles out punishment or reward? Who
determines which religious path leads
ultimately to unity with God? And who
decides that my path, my thoughts,
my beliefs, my ideas have less validity
than yours? or his? or hers? or theirs?
Who decides???

 

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