When the World is a Scary Place

When the world is a scary place, where can we go for safety?

When even our parents and our church care only, from us, to be free?

How do we find our good selves, when we’re reflected in the eyes

Of even those who brought us into the earth to be, by them, despised?

How can we flourish as the images and likenesses of God?

Who is to delight in us, if our parents aren’t, of us, proud?

When those who created us turn their faces and walk away,

Who will protect and give us solace, when others, on us prey?

No child should be forced upon a parent who wants no part in her or him.

There are few resources that are freely shared without compensation,

The granting of children to an uncaring community is heartless,

But the right to be wanted is something we don’t want to address.

People seem to want children in their own image and likeness,

And of their god who insists that all mistakes be redressed.

If this is the image and likeness of their stated deity,

Maybe this is who they want themselves and their children to be.

Parenting without patience is not a way to create perfection,

And honest mistakes should not make one fear rejection.

To be treated as a pariah usually makes an animal mean,

The human animal can’t flourish and bond without self-esteem.

Self-esteem does not have to lead to pridefulness,

As long as we are mindful that, by our talents, we are blessed.

It is how we develop those talents that make the difference,

Celebrating by sharing them, not a life of doing penance.

But when we are discouraged from growing in grace,

Because our authorities can’t keep up with our pace,

We spend lives of shame and hiding our strengths,

Instead of pursuing the paths for which we were meant.