Damned by My Memories?

It is no wonder that religion is so easy for those who accept that "God" is a male
Males aren't the parent with infinite patience and persistence in morality tales.
Males simply allow their darlings to climb into their laps for a quick laugh,
And send the children off to be tended by the mother and domestic staff.

How often do fathers ground their children without a second thought?
It's not their own imprisonment, with the child, that the sentence brought.
It is easy for lord and master gods to proclaim their "just" punishments,
Leaving the anger toward their authority to, on the "help," be spent.

How I have learned to fear and hate the "God" of Abraham?
This "God" has no relationship to my visions of the eternal I AM.
How did humans come from believing we're manifestations of divinity,
To believe the best of humans was born to appease this father's jealousy?

If this is the vision I must embrace of the father of our universe,
I accept the religious notion that my eternal future is cursed.
What my children are, and what they pass on to their progeny,
I have made every attempt to be separated from my eternal destiny.

My great hope is that I will leave this earth a more positive place,
Though I have not been able, through my offspring, to pass grace.
There are others that I have encountered that I did not threaten
With being eternally influenced by my intrinsic occasions of sin.

My vision of eternal life is balance between gestation and action;
This vision doesn't give competitive individuals much satisfaction.
In order for them to feel they've succeeded, some have to lose;
When will the majority of humanity, of this notion be disabused?

I do not believe in gods, though I do believe in eternal spirits.
I believe those that I once loved whisper, so only I can hear it.
Does this mean that they, and I, are in heaven or in hell?
I don't believe it is for anyone on earth to be able to tell.

Every faint spark of positive energy left with me by them,
Is, by their often tortured spirits, left for me to defend.
Let priests, prophets, shamans and witches lead with fear;
I will not condemn those memories that I hold most dear.

Salaam, Shalom, and Peace Be Upon Us All

Full Definition of RELIGION

1

a :  the state of a religious <a nun in her 20th year ofreligion>

b (1) :  the service and worship of God or the supernatural(2) :  commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance

2

:  a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices

The only definition that loosely applies to me is the second one, not in the personal, but in the community, sense. I don't have any use for "gods" and their capricious, jealous, vengeful ways. I do, however, have much respect for communities, built over many generations, of shared attitudes, beliefs, and practices. Maybe this makes me an atheist. Whatever...

As I believe Jesus exemplified, I think the best way to spread responsible compassion is to invite all to a feast where everyone contributes something. Nobody will ever convince me that pot-luck isn't the way Jesus fed the multitudes who came to hear his stories. He obviously got this hint from his Jewish mother, "Feed them and they will listen to you, but don't think you can satisfy all their special needs. Make it pot-luck, and don't charge admission. Those who don't feed us can clean up the mess."

I blame Paul for ignoring the roots of Jesus's religion, and I blame the Roman Catholic church for putting the marketing of Paul above the patient persistent of the Jews and joyful, Jewish Jesus. I also blame Abraham for allowing Hagar and Abraham's son to be sent into the desert to die, and for attempting to kill his own son Isaac, and for denying the birthright of his first-born, Ishmael. We continue to fight these ancient battles of our ancestors. We should get a life.

Once again, we humans must to dial back the clock of true humanity to another era in order to understand what to do to survive. Can we consider simply dialing it back to Pentecost, when Jesus released his spiritual essence to all who want to embrace it? 

I am not willing to kill anyone and/or his/her children because my (perhaps drunk) father/mother pissed another off several generations ago. Are you?

Salaam, Shalom, and peace be upon us all.

Why Women Are Our Enemies and We Love Them Anyway

I have met many women who were jealous of all others;
This may be where the concept of "a jealous God" began.
Their ferocious "mother tiger" selves strike out at anyone
Who gets between mother and her children, or her man.

It seems to matter not to these ferocious mother tigers,
Whether their protected ones are babies or grown men.
If they perceive presence stronger than their "babies,"
They will strike out, with full force, again and again.

In the knight in shining armor saviors, we like to believe;
It is a myth about the king protecting the princess.
Females coming from families, whether or not royalty,
Are treated as unpaid prostitutes, if not less.

The only way mothers can hand power on to daughters
Is registered financial security, in a mothers name,
This protects daughters as their brothers are protected by fathers.
To prevent all, and anyone, from denying a daughter's claim.

Longing to Be Let Go

You put a curse on your people, then are the hero who takes it away;
I regret that I carry the curse you put on me, even to this very day.
I struggle to be free of you, but you infected the marrow of my bones,
And with your sweet siren songs, you continue to beckon me "home".

How inspiring the great artworks that express the artists' souls;
The music and scriptures proclaim the greatest stories ever told;
The passion of my spiritual family for seeking earthly justice;
It is all of this bedrock of my spiritual journey that I miss.

It was within your walls that I first felt The Sacred Spirit,
Whispering so softly, I was the only one to hear it.
You also gave me what I needed to enable me to think;
I strain against your chains on me, but cannot break the link.

The Sacred Spirits of my siblings have died a million deaths;
Our only chance for healing was that, to us, you'd confess.
It has been far preferable to you to ruin our family name,
By denying your culpability in driving us all insane.

You demand belief in conflicting, simultaneous opinions;
Training, from birth, your "sacred" society's minions,
Demanding that we bow and kneel in front of you,
Though this was not something Jesus would ever do.

Your parish priests are prostitutes collecting a tax,
Spreading fear of hell if faithful communicants relax.
In your fancy temples, you sell the holy sacraments.
When do you intend to do your own penance?

I'd be at peace now if you had killed my physical body;
That you raped my Sacred Spirit was so much worse for me.
You've condemned your victims in your continued hubris;
I am telling you only because I was commanded to do this.

I have no hope of open dialog and reconciliation,
For you will not step down from your elevated station.
Release my soul from the vows I was forced to take,
So that I may honorably, the curse from you, forsake.

Annul your false sacraments so that I may embrace Pentecost,
And reclaim The Sacred Spirit that, in your care, I lost.
Let me go so My Sacred Spirit won't scare others away
Because they are held hostage by what your church would say.

Fathers Are Our Future

 

Every time you dishonor the parent, you also harm the parent's child,
So much more while the child depends on the parent for continued life.
Before a child can walk and bring food to her or his own lips,
Every threat to the sustaining parents makes the child fearful of death.

How is it that what we call humans are still walking upon this earth,
While acting as scavenging animals in their behaviors toward others?
Walking upright and the power of speech is not all that humanity requires.
Even monkeys swinging from trees protect their young better than do we.

Love is what we have for all when we are born; it is only with fear that this is destroyed.
The universe does not play favorites with different tribes and different species.
Even the ancient, unruly gods had to cooperate for humans to thrive.
When will we realize that we have the choice to work or to perish together?

Why do we continue to feed each other into the fires of an earthly hell?
STOP, people! THINK! We are not only animals. We are each a bit of The Sacred.
Look past the skin into the soul, where you will find a perfect baby, like yourself.
Seek out a soul that can see your own and wallow in wonder with this child.

Fathers, hold the mothers as they hold your sons and daughters.
Let your children and their mother breath in your sheltering strength.
Be a full partner in the act of procreation, only begun when you planted your seed.
Your ribs form the foundation for the tent of skin surrounding your sacred family.

Eternal Energy

Our energy is like pollen that we spread to all around us;
Some may open to receive it, and some turn away.
Some can't accept what we offer, as it is foreign to them;
These may remain as our neighbors, but never as family.

Not all around a mighty oak are destined to become trees,
And not only the trees are needed to complete a forest.
Even the duff that's produced by the oak's decay
Is important to sustain the life it, again, becomes.

The only caste system in any culture is imagined;
Neither ants, maggots, nor termites are untouchables.
They are simply the workers that we don't often see,
Refreshing energy for newly formed earthly life.

There's no new energy; it is all Alpha and Omega.
The Spirit than was in the beginning is now and forever.
It is our human duty to shelter The Sacred Spirit
In ourselves and in our family's holy home.

There are those who wish to possess your seeds.
They are the ones who cannot allow any pure beauty,
Without owning and controlling it for their own pleasure.
These will destroy a full forest to build their own beds.

We must be careful to whom we open ourselves.
Is their dust around us pollen or poison?
We must also be careful with whom we share,
As some wish to hoard our Sacred Spirit in a cage.

They will cut us off from the roots that feed us,
And when we wilt and die, they will replace us.
We can only pray that the joy we've given
Will become sacred energy in other's memories.

I was once a mighty oak, in a thriving forest,
But I continued to have branches pruned,
And poisons poured around my roots.
But the poison poured didn't kill all of me.

Two of my acorns lived to sprout in new soil;
By others in the forest, they have been taken away.
When I see them sheltering their own small trees,
And I am overcome with gratitude for their grace.

I weep for the forests that are not nurtured;
Where every leaf that falls is quickly taken away;
Where no care is taken in grafting and pollinating,
And the tiny trees are too crowded to thrive.

I wish that my body could be put upon a pyre,
And set out in the shade of a huge oak tree.
Birds feast on my flesh and bones enrich the soil,
This would seem perfect recycling for my energy.

Or take my body out on my much-loved lake,
With my friends and family in my funeral boat.
Mark the spot where I am placed in the water;
The crabbing will be very good here.

I lived to laugh, love, and leave an impression.
Sing; dance; eat; drink; laugh until you choke.
I see nothing sacred about sadness,
And you will never be free of my energy. HaHa!

The Martyrdom of Motherhood

The worst part of parenting, for me, was the pressure to be perfect.
Fathers don't live with the many reasons their children will, them, reject.
It matters not that the mother must choose to put her own life on the line;
The passive planter of the seed is the parent who is worshiped as divine.

Some believe that mothers are the objects of progeny's worship,
But the "gods" are always free to, their lesser subjects, reject.
When one is found deficient by the god to whom one sacrificed,
The supplicant is encouraged to offer more of one's very life.

This is not the way that humans are taught to see motherhood;
Mothers are seen as the receptacles for all earthly evil and good.
They are also seen as the source, even though they are vessels,
So they are eternally blamed for all universal and earthly ills.

Mothers are also forbidden to ask anything in return;
Demand for justice is reason enough for them to be burned.
My children are long grown, but they still blame me
Because their father didn't think I was as perfect as I should be.

I am weary beyond my human physical capacity;
I will no longer care what others wish that I would be.
It matters no longer to me who thinks I deserve hell;
I simply give what I have, as long as, on earth, I dwell.

I know some will see me as sinner and some as a saint;
The picture of my imprint on earth is not for me to paint.
As a leaf falls and feeds the soil, I see my death;
This is the image that has given my living spirit rest.

I hope the good I gave my children exceeds the bad;
I honestly gave them all the positive energy that I had.
I demand nothing from them because I am not a goddess;
I simply hope they pass on to their children my being's best.