Dancing While We Die

One of the worst things we do to our children is to allow them no pride;

The blessings we've been given responsibility for should not be denied.

We should teach them the humility to understand they are on loan;

Our gifts are something the Spirit of the Universe will always own.

We should also teach our young the magic of synergy;

Sharing our gifts with others creates a new energy.

When we truly love, we lean into each other;

This kind of sharing makes us all sisters and brothers.

The only leaders I will follow are those that know how to teach

With example and exchange of information, rather than preach.

If one can't demonstrate to another what one should do,

The mind may know how, but the body can't follow through.

I have had many mothers whose lives have been miracles;

They have graciously shown me how to keep my Spirit full.

Now many of them are facing their own dying days;

I want to be with them and shower them with praise.

And what of all the men who have helped me in this life?

My open love for them shouldn't threaten their wives.

We all need someone's hands to hold and wash us as we go.

Are we to help with all of this with no love beginning to show?

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we created living eulogies;

A deathbed party would, I think, many greatly please.

I'm so thankful for the Hospice angels who help us to tend

Our loved ones' physical needs as our lives come to an end.

Perhaps, one day, there will be a group who vows to each other

To give us compassionate care as we go, like that of a loving mother.

If we are facing our last moments here upon the earth

Shouldn't we be surrounded by gratitude and mirth?

When I go, it would be nice to be taken on a cruise

With all the many people that I'm about to lose.

Let them all party with me as I say good-bye,

Laugh, sing, dance, and tell fun stories until we cry.

The way to perfection for some is to never do anything;

This is not the story that, about me, people will sing.

It may be selfish, but I don't care what is done with my dead body;

While I'm alive I want to be the catalyst for a party.

It doesn't seem right to be silent until our loved ones are gone;

Our shared blessings and blunders will continue to live on.

I have been chosen before to be a person's death director;

This is the person who is the dying one's wishes protector.

Some would say this is prideful, that we want to celebrate

What we did in life, that some may consider great.

It would also be wonderful if those that I have harmed

Would let me say I'm so sorry as they hold me in their arms.

I know that I've hurt many because I live so out loud;

This is the root of my shame; it doesn't make me proud.

The great big passions I feel, I do not know how to control;

I hope not to die leaving these scars on others' souls.

Still Sitting Shiva

We must be able to speak ill of the dead when we have been harmed by them,
Just as those who where helped are able to still claim them as friends.
The negative energy people plant in others doesn't simply go away
Until the wounds inflicted by others are healed, the negative energy stays.

My prayer is that when I leave this life, I've had opportunity
To make amends to those who, from my wrongs, need setting free.
And I hope those I've loved and helped feel free to celebrate
Without the shadow of the things I did that they hate.

I know it isn't so, but relationships should be about batting average,
But the harms outweigh the gifts in those fueled by rage.
All those who believe in suffering as salvation refuse to be healed;
Those who punish all pain believe that any enemy must be killed.

I can truly say that the most freeing revelation to me
Is knowing that another was loved by someone who hurt me.
When I share my wounds with this person, it is my hope
That their love is strong enough to be a saving rope.

I do not seek to destroy that which is good in the other's heart
I simply want to reclaim my own bloodied and beaten parts.
I understand a seven day moratorium on speaking ill,
But must I wait until death to that part of my heart fill?

It is not for us to ever know whether our own energies balance,
But I believe while we live we have many a chance
To seek to leave a positive "footprint" on this earth
When we focus on our Divine Spirit that should have been ours at birth.

If If a Mother Has a Dead Soul, Her Babies Can't Be Whole

My mother's soul died before I was even conceived;
This is something I know, though others don't believe.
She died giving birth to her second child, my older sister;
Her body and my sister survived, by my mother was no longer her.


My mother could not be at peace after she'd been dragged from hell.
My sister never did, fully, in the physical world dwell.

My father was traveling to discover the secrets of the earth;
Family members took in the young that my parents birthed.

As soon as we children would attach to another mother,
We'd be taken away to meet a new sister or brother.
We were all orphaned children, no matter that our parents lived
The Church's lack of compassion for families is something I can't forgive.

The popes continue to pressure families to procreate,
Even though they are not providing for those that wait
On the beleaguered parents who have obeyed their demands.
Family management, like in all resources, takes a careful plan.

For families that sent their men to war and other jobs during peace,
The Church pretended the unfilled needs could be filled by their priests.
The pretending at being family men soon created a price to pay,
As, on the vulnerable of the parishes, the honored priests did prey.

The priests, protected from prosecution, by separation of church and state
Had no limits put on the miracles they were said to help create.
How is that a priest who has led so many innocents to sin
Is allowed near a church of worship, much less, allowed in?

Those who have the dead souls of the innocents on their hands
Should be given the same way out as Judas, as scripture demands.
Let it be up to The Almighty what happens to them then;
Making amends to those we've hurt is where forgiveness begins.

I would feel satisfied if those who took my family's souls
Offered their own lives in an attempt to make us whole.
I would accept their suicides with eternal gratitude
As long as they confessed their desire to make their evils good.

It is not that I have blood lust, this is far from my truth,
But my family is drowning without our faith's proof.
Isn't it about time The Roman Church became truly Christian
And realizes that protecting the faith is not about protecting them?

Unborn Babies

Where are the babies who are not given birth?
My beliefs say that the unborn babies are at peace.
The little sparks of energy that were their souls
Did not die when their corporal energy ceased.

I believe the same for my unborn sister or brother;
No priest or pontiff needed to sanctify this soul.
In fact this baby was one of the lucky ones,
Who was given back to The Spirit still whole.

I've known many who aborted their offspring,
And gone on to do great things with their lives.
At the time of their abortions they knew
That their care, the baby's Spirit, may not survive.

These are all smart women who gave
Their decision to abort much thought.
They had seen first-hand the horrors
That unwanted babies had wrought.


For some we offered to take the child;
These women felt the babies' Spirits, 
If, like theirs, were already broken.
Their babies would also be misfits.


I had struggled mightily with motherhood;
My friends, sadly, knew this about me.
And looking at the lives of themselves,
Would their babes from their demons be free?

If a baby is conceived in a polluted body,
Their can be permanent damage to the soul.
How many of us have enough helping hands
To commit to a child who'll never be whole?

It's a fantasy that all babies are blessings,
And I know this is not universally true.
We live in a society that values us
Based on what we are able to do.

We are animals in the wilderness
Unless someone takes us in,
And commits their souls and bodies
To helping us become fully  human.

Leaning Into the Heart of God by Gayle

http://onebirdwatching.blogspot.com/2012/06/leaning-into-heart-of-god.html

One of the defining moments of my life as a grandmother came when my grandchild was two years old.  The family had been visiting us for Christmas, a week when A. and I spent every waking moment together -- going for walks, talking, eating together, and grandma just watching, watching, watching every precious thing she did. 

The morning they were leaving, A. and I sat on the bottom step together as her parents loaded suitcases in the car and rushed around making sure that nothing had been left behind.  Somehow, even at the age of two, she must have realized that they were leaving me behind, and as we sat there without a word being spoken between us, she leaned into my side as if to embrace me.  At that moment, I recognized the intimate and very special bond between grandparent and grandchild.  For the first time in my life, I myself was not responsible for getting things done -- for getting to the airport on time, for making sure that life's tasks were completed responsibly, for any accomplishment.  For the first time in my life, I had the luxury to just sit and love. 

That morning, we both leaned into one another's hearts.  She felt my sadness; I felt hers -- even though she was only two, there was a true communion of hearts.  As she has grown older, that bond continues, despite the physical distance between us.  We "lean into" one another with no words spoken.  When she was nine, we took a walk together, and she said, "You know why I like talking to you?  You listen!"  I listen because there is nothing more important to me; there is nothing I have to be doing at the moment.  Listening is what I am there for---and nothing else demands my immediate attention.

Now that I am fortunate enough to be retired, I am experiencing the same relationship with God.  There is nothing I have to be doing at the moment; I am free to lean into the heart of God and to listen to Him.  No words are spoken; no words need to be spoken.  I can sit on the front porch with my book un-read, dishes un-washed, garden un-weeded and lean into the heart of my God, who leans lovingly into my heart also.

Once I said to my grandchild, "I'm a terrible grandmother.  I don't write and I don't call."  Her response:  "But I know you're there!"  That about sums up the relationship.  We are both "there" when it comes to each other -- and nothing else is between us, interfering with that bond.  When Scripture says, "Be still, and know that I am God," does it not mean the same relationship?  When we are still, when there is nothing more important that must be done, we can lean into the heart of the Most High God and know that He is "there."

The Skin I'm In

Every time life is kind to me, I become giddy with gratitude,
And when I'm hurt or angry, I cannot hide my mood.
Some turn their hearts from me because I'm too emotional
It's the only way I stay undepressed when I feel devotional.

I have been taught from birth that God does not enjoy
The loud speech or laughter of lively girls and boys.
I just can't be quiet when I feel The Spirit tickle me;
I can't sing, dance, or paint, but my Spirit struggles free.

I see my children and their children, and their Spirits blind me;
I think I try too hard to help others see what only I can see.
I have spent my life punished, scorned, and drugged
Because I've always wanted to give the world a hug.

Many envy my liveliness, say I'm high on life;
Some think it makes me a lousy mother and wife.
I have found out there's a diagnosis for people like me,
Borderline Personality Disorder, known as BPD.

Who assigns these diagnoses; who sets the norm?
Your discomfort doesn't mean I'll do you harm.
It is true I need boundaries, a safe place to rest,
But denying my emotions takes away my best.

Even my mother was jealous of the power of my personality;
I have often prayed, from my personality, to be set free.
It must be a wonderful thing to be comfortable in one's skin,
But, on this journey through life, I wouldn't know where to begin.

Magical or Mentally Ill?

There is no one thing on earth that has only one manifestation;
Color is in our perception of light; after dark there's little differentiation.
I know a tree is green to those who taught me color in school,
But now teachers who limit the imagination are thought of as cruel.

Are those who are color blind unable to see a tree?
Or does the color look different to them than it does to me?
A person who is schizophrenic to you, may be mystic to me;
And what is the difference between perfectionist and OCD?

While we may not want scientists who can't think in straight lines,
All great art is created in an artist's alternate state of mind.
When sadness mixes with fear and anger, some become enraged;
Others become more manic in that in which they are engaged.

There are those who will tell you that they know the facts of life;
These are people for whom the accepted rules and history suffice.
There are so many marginalized because they see what others don't;
Some of us see and hear many things that others can't or won't.

There is no way for a blind man to comprehend yellow;
A scientist may not communicate with a more artistic fellow.
Do we have to label each other as right or wrong,
Simply because we don't understand each others' song?

I know that in order to survive, I need to cooperate;
This is why we have many ways to communicate.
Some can't perceive emotion, including others' pain;
We also have words and touch to make our feelings plain.

There are those who cannot speak in an organized way;
This doesn't mean they have nothing to say.
Some dance, some sing, some paint beautifully,
All attempts to set what we're feeling free.

There must be those who embrace both science and art;
Can't these people, in communication, play a mediator's part?
Instead we tend to form herds of people all the same;
Even in the world of sports, this is no way to win a game.

Can we please stop arguing over whose manifestation is right,
Instead of being intrigued by the many ways of seeing light?
I don't say you're wrong because you have a different gift;
Maybe if we communicate and share, both our views will shift.

If you believe only those who believe like you are saved,
We will never be at peace with each other until we're in our graves.
Until we want to understand where others' views are coming from,
There is very little chance that peace on earth will ever come.

Our Offspring and the Untouchables

The most important thing about Jesus, in my opinion, was in his life of courage, strength of belief, and example. The fact that this led to his being murdered by the frightened masses is quite incidental to me; however, his willingness to go to his death with courage does underline how deeply he believed in his mission on earth.

Until Jesus, place in society was pre-ordained by one's birthright. Jesus' very radical message was that parents don't hand on their strengths, weaknesses, and beliefs, only the tendency toward certain attributes. The blending of the attributes of both parents creates a new entity, in most cases, with the ability to choose which behaviors of what parents one will emulate. Free will also gives us the ability to choose to look outside our ancestory for example.

Whether Jesus was a god while he walked on earth is the subject of much debate, but one thing is certain. Both his earthly parents came from a long line of people groomed for generations to lead this most special man in preparation for his ministry, breaking the chains of ritualistic righteousness. We still don't seem to get it.

We still treat others as "untouchables" by refusing to pay them wages that enable them to live in dignity. We still hold fast to families and faith traditions that are against the acknowledgement of Divinity in all of creation. And we still want laws that mandate what we consider moral behavior because we don't have the willingness to stand up for what we believe while society scorns us and our offspring for messing up the curve of the supposed laws of salvation. We still appoint people to lead us like we are sheep, instead of exercising our own judgement.

There are some souls that have no capacity for free will (judgement). Certain forms of brain damage and mental illnesses make it impossible for these people to be productive without patient parents and/or partners forever acting as mentors and/or balance for the deficits of the damaged people. How much more important is it to have strength of conviction enough to act on our beliefs when dealing with those with no capacity for discernment!

It has taken almost two thousand years for Pentecost to begin to be acknowledged and acted upon. Let us not, in fear of each other, turn back to rules of righteousness and religions meant to exclude all the weak from our families and society. Let us be more patient with those who need the most outside help in maintaining boundaries, as we hold their hands and guide them with our own examples.

Faith, Family, and Fidelity

Are we going to save the babies or honor their parents, long-dead ?

We can't speak ill of the dead? We're free to share what we dread.

Some sit Shiva to draw enough to say, about the dead, what was good.

There are some in whom there was no goodness. Isn't this understood?

Christianity, before Constantine, was a religion of all that came before;

The pope sold out to politics and, to what came before, closed the door.

There were many who pretended piety at the sharpened edge of a sword;

This didn't mean that they actually believed that to which they swore.

We have suffered from the false versions and creeds of Christianity;

The Christ was never intended to create a political power of policy.

The Christian church became afraid and sold out so many years ago,

It is time that those who are Spiritual Christians, their values show.

Those who protested the Vatican's strong hold on Christendom

Now must, all the falseness, in Roman Christendom agree to shun.

No human was ever infallible; Jesus didn't, for himself, claim this.

It is time that The "Holy" Roman State, we all join hands to resist.

There are many who have tried to change the church from inside,

And, with these faithful souls, my respect and gratitude abide.

But the time has come to allow the legal representatives

To prosecute the offensives that we humans shouldn't forgive.

Let the God of Isaac, Jacob, Abraham, and their wives

Decree the eternal fates of those, for whom death, we decide.

We must unite to stop those whose souls were dead before their births

From destroying the Divine Energy that was put upon this earth.

The most moral men I know are Judeo-Christian, who are ridiculed because

They destroy the curve for other men, who hide behind their wives and mothers.

The man I married this time is Judeo-Christian, of Roman Catholic stock;

He learned values from his father and religious orders, by whom he was taught.

He cannot quote the words of sacred scripture or sing religious songs;

On his heart and soul he seems to have a sense of right and wrong.

And he's willing to honor and learn from that stamped on my heart;

But, unlike him, I get shaky when we're too long apart.

It is often difficult for me to walk side-by-side with my man

Who has in his heart and soul a very straight and narrow plan.

But I am blessed because he continues putting his arms out to me;

He waits while I come around to understanding his policies.

We are both united in the family being our personal church;

We stand strong together, no matter where our loved ones lurch.

While we are often, because of this, left together, and all alone.

We still have the door open to those who want a safe, loving home.

This is our answer to the controversies and contradictions

Contained in the scriptures on which organized religion depends.

We have seen the practice of these various religious creeds

And we try to emulate those who teach by their deeds.

The Role of Responsibility

I once thought I was pregnant by a man with no sense of responsibility;
I knew I could not raise a child that would be father-free.
Even though my children and their father lived many miles away,
I knew that he would always, in their lives, an important role play.

I wasn't sure I could bring myself to subject another baby
To the pitfalls of my mothering, which many times was crazy.
I believed that the only solution may be to kill myself and this babe,
But who would be the mother and, my children, continue to raise?

In a Utopian Universe there are communities of perfect parents,
Who will always be there for whatever babies we present.
But, in my experience, most people are much too occupied
To take on the children whose parents' souls have died.

There is little community care or sense of obligation
To children from other families and beliefs across our nation.
The Ten Commandments are rules for getting along with each other,
But we continue the course of Cain and Able, brother against brother.

I believe Cain and Able learned power struggles from their parents,
More focused on themselves than on the children they were sent.
How many of us are prepared to give up our own needs and desires,
Once we have, the next generation, mothered or sired?

Until the day we are ready, maybe the most honest thing
Is to give back the many babies who are unwanted offspring.
If we cannot undo the damage that was created by being rejected,
Should we return the fetuses to The Spirit to be protected?

Babies and Birthrights

To whom am I praying, if not to The Positive Power of The Universe
What or who has the power to reverse the mistakes by which we're cursed?
Is it possible that our fore mothers and fathers, beginning with Adam and Eve
Have doomed every generation who they and their heirs conceived?

How is that, in a just world, there are babies born with such deficits
That even their own mothers and fathers look upon them with regrets?
How is that, no matter how much we love, we cannot heal the hurts
That have been visited upon the children, even before their births?

How is it that the babies continue to suffer for the sins
Committed by their ancestors, even before their lives begin?
How can we rescue our babies from what we cannot see?
Will we ever be, from the sins of our parents, set free?

The only hope I see is that we pay attention to procreation,
And marry those who have strengths in our weak ideations.
But first we must reject the world's values that have no Grace;
Only living in our Holy Spirits makes us a human race.

The Abused and the Accused

What does one do to repair one's soul?

Making our wrongs right can make us whole.

There are some wrongs that are only between us and our god,

And there are many that affect the creation on which we trod.

Do we first repair the sins we have committed against The Almighty

By accepting the new energy of The Holy Spirit as our deity?

Then with the new power infused into our souls and lives

Begin to rebuild parts of ourselves that, even before birth, died?

Or is it necessary to repair our relationships with humans

Before the hoped-for Holy Spirit will, our brokenness, mend?

I want to confront my abusers with what my soul needs to set free;

It is not for me to know how this affects eternity.

We, in this country, have the right to confront the accused,

To make decisions in the fate of those by whom we've been abused.

Maybe it is time to ask the aggrieved for their opinions,

Instead of having juries of unaffected women and men.

It is difficult to bring up children when they have choices,

But they eventually must learn to ignore false voices.

My parents and the church should face a tribunal

For all the punishments they inflicted that were so cruel.

Their church was complicit in authorities' tyranny,

But this, in my heart, doesn't set my parents free.

Our country was supposed to be separate from the church,

But toward a church state many continue to lurch.

When the clergy breaks the bonds of its vows,

Their highly privileged status should be disallowed.

Crimes committed by the mortal humans

Should face the penalties humanity demands.

If you have harmed me, I should be the one 

To hear you confess and raise or lower my thumb.

Only if I feel that you have set my soul free,

Will I want you walking the streets with me.

I, too, should be approached by those I've harmed,

With witnesses who won't become alarmed.

We should be able to talk our issues through,

With help from those who love the two.

This is the church family to which I want to belong,

Not one with only rituals and mindless songs.

But, in my experience, people won't get involved

When our relationship issues need to be solved.

Do they exist who stand for values over tradition

Who, in making judgments, won't ask others' permission,

The wise judges like Deborah and Solomon, 

Who care more for the weak than the powerful humans?

Beloved Broken Babies

All of us should have the spark of True God in us before conception;
Our lack of this Divinity is in our ancestors' rejection
Of the things that protect themselves and their seeds from hell.
This is something on which I wish all potential parents would dwell.

The great prophets have come from generations of preparation,
So that they would be ready to righteously lead new nations.
Babies born to dead spirits are hardly prepared to thrive,
Even if we manage to keep their tiny bodies alive.

Is it any wonder that those who have put their souls to sleep
Are not able to, any morality principles, keep?
And why do we marvel that those conceived in violence
Have, in their souls and spirits, felt violent ever since?

I still hope those who had their Divinity taken away
Can one day shed the demons that, on their souls, prey.
Meantime, I'm not sure that it's not preferable
To return them to The Divinity in which they should be full.

Perhaps if we prevent their births with souls that are destroyed,
The positive energy of The Spirit will be, by them, enjoyed.
And perhaps their wonderful sparks of The Spirit will grow,
And to those who will nurture their Divinity, they will eventually go.


I say spay and neuter every animal that is able to mate
If all they want is to fill their own needs and wants when they procreate.
Let them have their empty pleasures without creating lost souls;
If your Spirit is dead, your baby can't be born whole.

Males, Mothers, and Mentors

"Everyone who seeks the Truth needs a guide or a mentor." - OneBirdWatching.blogspot.com

Yesterday was Fathers' Day. My son called me. He is not my father, but he is the father/mentor of two of my beloved grandchildren. Should I have called him? Perhaps, but I choose to wait for him to seek me.

I'm not sure when humankind realized that birth was not simply the magic of a mother, but a conjoining of the energy of mother and father.  I do know that it has been long enough that it should be accepted by all thinking beings. Unfortunately, there are still those who are so primitive that they believe that God plants babies in the wombs of mothers, and that this endows mothers with special powers and privileges.

Mothers don't make babies without men, and fathers can't make babies without women. People decide to make babies with each other, with or without consulting a Divine Spirit.  I shudder at the thought that one day cloning of humans may become possible, and babies will be made by replicating their mothers. Men will then be nonexistent. I fear that this is where we are headed with artificial means of impregnating women.

How did we get to a society where men sell their seed and women their ova?

Men, for many millenia, have been treated as superfluous, except as progenitors and providers. They have willingly gone off to war to protect their women's progeny. It is time that women allow them the space in their own homes where they, too, can celebrate and be celebrated.

Women, for many millenia, have been forced by their vulnerability while pregnant or mothering, to accept the ascendency, even by abuse, of the men in their area. Rape, incest, and other abuse have long been ways to create dependence and vulnerability in the ascendent females.


We are finally coming to acceptance of parental partnering. Men have never been the only ones capable of mentory; neither have women. We are all both male and female in our genetic makeup. Those who have both knowledge and wisdom in certain areas are those who should be honored, in their areas, with mentoring our young.

Let us stop caring who has the most sense of style, who has the most compassionate heart, and who has the most physical strength. We are all cut from the same cloth. If Jesus was truly a man while he walked the earth, even he had X and Y chromosomes.


I am grateful every day that I was born in the United States of America, where we, at least in principle, uphold the rights of every human being to be treated as a being born in "the image and likeness of God." Unfortunately, we continue to fight over the true face of our god. My god is neither male nor female, but is a Divine energy or Holy Spirit that powers all creation, male and female. Many have sacrificed to come to this point on the path in understanding Divinity. I will not go back.

Grateful for Grandchildren

My grandchildren have returned to their homes.
Thankfully, I have only seven days to mourn.
They will return in about a week,
Bringing the joy that I so longingly seek.

I absolutely love watching the young
Becoming the humans they will become.
I must be reminded by them of the stages
That are appropriate for different ages.

I know little of child development;
By seven, my innocence had been spent.
Is it possible that even at eighteen
They aren't ready to be kings and queens?

How blessed are the children who are closely held
By parents who don't, on their weaknesses, dwell.
The parents who support them as they learn
To wisely use their passions that burn.

It often takes a whole village of wisdom
To hold on while the children fully become
The men and women they were meant to be;
Only then do these families set their young free.

I'm so grateful that my own children
Have become a responsible woman and man.
They love their children and guide them,
So I can enjoy my children again.

It is often a struggle for them to understand
The boundaries behind which I firmly stand,
But my children trust me to honor their values,
And to protect their children from abuse.

Sacrifice and Sanctity

I have a dear Catholic friend who is filled with joy in The Holy Spirit, and is helpless to keep from sharing this joy. She sings it in her home, in her garden, in the classrooms in which she teaches. I can't be in her presence without being inspired.

Yet many times, when I hear her speak or read her spiritual insights, I am greatly saddened. She speaks of people who came into her life with a new path to The Spirit and she speaks of people who have been recognized by clerics and others of her society as holy, but she doesn't sing of The Spirits of the people who have loved her most dearly for the longest time, her own family and friends. Is this because they do not share her prayer groups or religious beliefs?

I think it is because so many believe that we are not to honor our own friends and families simply for the love and devotion with which they share their Spirits with us. Is this because it may lead to pridefulness, and all Bible readers know that "Pride commeth before the fall?" They seem to believe that sharing our essences is simply what is expected of family and true friends; to acknowledge it somehow takes away the sacrificial nature of their gifts. Or is it that we are afraid that to speak of our own families with such admiration will seem prideful? Or do we fear that, by speaking of our families with such graitude, we will fill others with covetous thoughts?

A woman I knew, who was in a group of wives to discuss what was wrong with their marriages, reported that the group leader said to the group, "If you women found the perfect man, you probably wouldn't know what to do with him." If we see our salvation in terms of sacrifice, it is unlikely that we will be comfortable when we feel absolute joy on a human level. In fact, we will continue to seek pain to sanctify ourselves.

We also seem reluctant to admit to others the unabashed joy that the sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste of our spouses and children bring us. Aren't these the greatest gifts that we are given on this earth, experiencing our own Divine natures through the physical presence (and presents) of those who are part of us?

I believe that this is the essence of what is wrong with so much of our organized religion, the focus on sacrifice instead of gratitude, celebration, and graceful acceptance.

Shame, Constantine, and Charlemagne

My mother's religion sent so many to hell,
Even though they now say they did not do well:
Her beloved uncle who committed suicide
And her last baby that, before birth, died.

And my grandmother, they named a whore
Because her husband, Catholicism, forswore.
My mother spent her life feeling, by this sin, tainted,
Though her mother, for her faith, should be sainted.

Her daughters and sons, when molested,
Her Church, my mother's claims, protested,
Had they not sworn to teach and protect
Even those whom our society rejects?

She could not leave because only they held
The key to the gates of eternal hell.
She continued to kneel for the blessings of men
Who had infected her children with their sin.

She could never accept that one can be saved
Without a clerical blessing at one's grave.
We are The Church Militant, we were told.
This designation has made me bold.

I refuse to believe that one with a black soul
Has the power to make anyone whole.
Strong drink and drugs may deaden their shame
But it doesn't take away The Church's blame.

Where are the souls that my mother mourned,
And we were taught we were to scorn?
If Hell is eternal, how can they now say,
The same people are those to whom we may pray?

When will we realize that the Christian well
Was poisoned when, into politics, it fell?
The false faith of Constantine and Charlemagne
Created a church focused on earthly gain.

Men of power were treated as gods
As they destroyed the path that the prophets trod.
It is time that all children of Abraham
Stop acting as sheep to power-hungry man.

The Spirit of Divinity is not taught in school;
It is simply the spark in which all nature is full.
Those who use charisma to lead children to sin
Aren't even worth treating as fully human.

A millstone should they tie about their own necks
And throw themselves into the sea.
Only by them following this biblical teaching
Will The Almighty's people ever be free.

If All Children Were Cherished

If all children were cherished, would we still have war?

When we marry without self-esteem, we tend to marry one who is like us. In this manner, we justify our own existence, but we also multiply the chances that we will amplify our own weaknesses in the next generation. If we haven't learned to deal with our own weaknesses in ourselves, there is little hope that we will successfully deal with them in our mate or our children.Conversely, shame about who we are can lead us to choose someone quite the opposite of the source of our shame, without thought to what strengths this person brings to the union.

And then there is the pride in one's own ancestry that excludes all that aren't like us. These people are firmly convinced that their superior genetics must be preserved and passed on. Without being aware of the weaknesses in oneself and one's ancestors, the weak genetics will often be magnified in the offspring. How sad it is that we often choose automobiles and houses more thoughtfully than we choose our mates. How horrible it is that we often choose spouses and bear children for much the same reasons as we acquire property, bragging rights. Any weakness is seen as a taint on the "owner's" reputation.

We have entered an era where unwanted marriages and children could be a thing of the past, even in cases of rape and incest.  We can take the time to carefully consider our own suitability to the lifetime commitments of marriage and children, even if we have already succumbed to our animal sexual instincts or been forced into procreation with a sub-human being. There would be no justification for neglect or abuse of spouses or children.

I would like to see less fertility clinics and more open adoptions. I'd like to see a time when those who object to abortion are willing to  make the commitment to give their lifetimes to the unwanted child. I'd like to see more people, who are concerned about their own genetic weaknesses, adopt children from tribes who don't share their genetic traits. I'd like to see people, who have no resources to share with their children, have temporary sterilization forced on them until such time as they are able to provide physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional support.

I'd like for teenage boys and girls to spend time as parents' helpers before they embark on their own procreative adventures. I'd like for us to stop acting as if babies fall from heaven like manna, and own up to the responsibility that comes with creating new life. If we choose to have children and really cherish them, we will have no excuse for abuse. Will the end of all war follow? I don't know, but isn't it worth a try?

Roman Catholic Canon

No two people are born with the same walk of salvation.

Each person will begin where they are on their own path,

But marriage depends on a common final goal.

Each spouse will sometimes follow and sometimes lead,

Each waiting and encouraging as may be necessary.

Only, in this manner, can a family remain whole.

Not only the two must continue focusing on the goal;

Those who came before them must also watch and wait.

How many of us get in a hurry to secure our own place,

And cut loose the others on our life's relay team?

Unless we stop and look back now and then,

We may get their first, but we still lose the race. 


"On completion of the seventh year, 

A minor is presumed to have the use of reason."

This is the teaching of the Roman Catholic canon.

And is the way parents put blame and shame

For their predecessor's and their own errors

Onto their young daughters and their sons.

What foolishness to think that any child

With so little knowledge and experience of life, 

A baby who hasn't even reached puberty,

Is able to take the full credit or blame,

For their own or any other's actions.

They're not ready for such responsibility.

But those who have been shackled

With adult fear and abuse from a young age,

Are always carrying an unfair burden.

They were tasked with undeserved shame

From their ancestors and authorities, too.

The weight becomes too much for them.
 

We were the children caught between

The Vengeful, Jealous God and His Son.

We had no hope of eternal peace or harmony.

The scriptures between which we were sandwiched

Left no room for human argument or error;

There was no path in which our spirits could fly free.

Some of my beloveds have given up,

And they have finally destroyed themselves,

Rather than continue the search for perfection.

Some have taken others to be with them, 

While they rejected all family values,

Rather than to risk their own rejection.


We now seek a scared place somewhere on earth,

Where we can find some place of rest and peace.

There is no further perfection in any part of creation,

Than the place where a group of us is made to be.

We must stop fighting to achieve our best selves alone;

This is not the purpose of any human being's station.


So gather to yourself those who join with joy 
In your walk back to your own innocence.
Allow yourself to be remade in the image of Divinity.
You were born perfect through the blood of your mother.
You deserved to be protected by the those who made you. 
You, and those who nurture you, are your community.

Fulfilling Friendships

What a difference a friend can make in our lives and our attitudes
A friend is one who can see your best underneath what's not so good.
They encourage you to laugh at your fears, and take their power away;
They will fight for you when you're too weak to fight your own prey.

They expect that you will, when able, pick up your spirit's sword again;
They do not delight in the vulnerability or dependence of their friend.
They take over only when necessary to keep your plan on course;
They never look back at the times they helped you, with remorse.

And when it is time for you to stand strong on your own,
They will always be available to you with their hearts and homes.
But they will back away should you continue to deny your strength,
Because they want you to achieve the life for which you were meant.

And they will always be waiting silently in the wings of your life,
Like the partners who are committed as husband and wife.
Because a true lifetime friend also has parts of your soul;
Without you they will continue to miss this piece that makes them whole.

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.