Every breath of autumn's clear, crisp air, every dapple of the sun
Speaks to me of the majesty of The All Powerful One.
Every dimple on a child's smiling face, every tear in a baby's eye
Is something that I seek to embrace as a reason to continue to try.
Every trill of birdsong, the pelicans bobbing on the waves,
Let me know that it is the life we embrace that saves.
I say I'm comfortable with accepting the Eternal Mystery
Of what or who The Eternal Energy of The Spirit must be.
But from limits to God's faces, my soul is free;
I look for This Energy in all I am privileged to see.
But if I truly could accept the deepest unknown
Wouldn't dark nights, like day, feel like home?
Perhaps this is the lesson I have yet to embrace:
That there is Eternal Energy in the darkest place.
We seek out The Spirit in love and in light,
But we must learn to find peace in the darkest night.
Only then will we find balance in our present life,
And stop fearing and hiding from times of strife.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Friday, December 2, 2011
Words Which Forever Fester
Words may hurt and words may heal,
Once spoken, they're forever real.
Those who often speak carelessly
Perhaps don't see what I think I see:
The wounds that will bleed forever
Because someone was being clever.
Maybe they see in others more strength
Than the vision of self which some were sent.
Those who belong to a successful tribe
Have an identity on which they thrive.
They think nothing of rejecting others;
They don't feel called to be earth mothers.
Those who had no parents to protect them
Feel the pain when others reject them.
They cannot stand strong and true
In the face of careless things people do.
They suffer from society's rejection
Because they ask for more introspection.
The bearer of bad news soon becomes
The person from whom others quickly run.
If you point out problems you will be
The problem from whom other people flee.
You must begin to hide from all who embrace
The shaming of others to save their own face.
The greatest message I see in Christianity
Is permission, from our ancestors, to break free.
We can choose who we follow and who we'll be
Based on our personal gifts and ability.
It is up to me to choose an accepting society
Based on the life values held dear by me.
Once spoken, they're forever real.
Those who often speak carelessly
Perhaps don't see what I think I see:
The wounds that will bleed forever
Because someone was being clever.
Maybe they see in others more strength
Than the vision of self which some were sent.
Those who belong to a successful tribe
Have an identity on which they thrive.
They think nothing of rejecting others;
They don't feel called to be earth mothers.
Those who had no parents to protect them
Feel the pain when others reject them.
They cannot stand strong and true
In the face of careless things people do.
They suffer from society's rejection
Because they ask for more introspection.
The bearer of bad news soon becomes
The person from whom others quickly run.
If you point out problems you will be
The problem from whom other people flee.
You must begin to hide from all who embrace
The shaming of others to save their own face.
The greatest message I see in Christianity
Is permission, from our ancestors, to break free.
We can choose who we follow and who we'll be
Based on our personal gifts and ability.
It is up to me to choose an accepting society
Based on the life values held dear by me.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Marvelous Majesty
I don't think evening can get more beautiful.
Can I stand this much glory when my heart is full?
I've surely already died and then to heaven gone
The water, sky, and sea are all gloried as one.
The pelicans feasting on fish before night begins,
Are part of the circle of life, beginning and end.
The Marvelous Majesty in the golden rays of the sun;
I imagine it was there before the earth was begun.
People on the promenade hurry home to loved ones,
As early animals did before our civilization was begun.
Birds find their nesting places in the trees on the grounds;
The feral cats hunt for the prey that in them abound.
I've loved what I could see as I looked upon the day,
But I know that none of these moments are here to stay,
Except in the memories as we welcome the dark of night
A vision of life's wonder in which I wish to delight.
Can I stand this much glory when my heart is full?
I've surely already died and then to heaven gone
The water, sky, and sea are all gloried as one.
The pelicans feasting on fish before night begins,
Are part of the circle of life, beginning and end.
The Marvelous Majesty in the golden rays of the sun;
I imagine it was there before the earth was begun.
People on the promenade hurry home to loved ones,
As early animals did before our civilization was begun.
Birds find their nesting places in the trees on the grounds;
The feral cats hunt for the prey that in them abound.
I've loved what I could see as I looked upon the day,
But I know that none of these moments are here to stay,
Except in the memories as we welcome the dark of night
A vision of life's wonder in which I wish to delight.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
The Divine State of Mind
A recently rediscovered childhood friend sent this to me:
"Namasté :
I honor the place in you in which the entire universe dwells. I honor the place in you which is of love, of truth, of light and of peace. When you are in that place in you and I am in that place in you and I am in that place in me, we are one."
I looked up the term Namasté and found that this is one interpretation of the meaning of this Hindu greeting. All definitions seem to refer to the honoring of the divinity in each other. I am struck by the contrast between this and the belief system on which I was raised in which we are always praying for some small part of divinity to visit us with little hope that it would stay around for long.
It seems that the difference in my culture and the Hindu culture can be summed up as: We look for our faces on that of The Almighty; where they are always seeing The Almighty in each other's faces. Perhaps that is why we have been so sure that God is an angry man for so many millenia. We were busy putting our earthly power provinces on god instead of looking for The Eternal in each other. As King Arthur said in Camelot: Might doesn't make right, but right does make might.
"Namasté :
I honor the place in you in which the entire universe dwells. I honor the place in you which is of love, of truth, of light and of peace. When you are in that place in you and I am in that place in you and I am in that place in me, we are one."
I looked up the term Namasté and found that this is one interpretation of the meaning of this Hindu greeting. All definitions seem to refer to the honoring of the divinity in each other. I am struck by the contrast between this and the belief system on which I was raised in which we are always praying for some small part of divinity to visit us with little hope that it would stay around for long.
It seems that the difference in my culture and the Hindu culture can be summed up as: We look for our faces on that of The Almighty; where they are always seeing The Almighty in each other's faces. Perhaps that is why we have been so sure that God is an angry man for so many millenia. We were busy putting our earthly power provinces on god instead of looking for The Eternal in each other. As King Arthur said in Camelot: Might doesn't make right, but right does make might.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Today's Taps
The golden light at the fall of night on the waves of the serene sea
Reminds me always that I must think about the day that was given me.
It is time for quiet reflecting on what I did and what I said,
Thinking of how I followed my mission and who I may have misled,
Spent in quiet contemplation and in saying a silent prayer,
For the many people whose life and love I'm privileged to share.
A bit of melancholy usually presents its sweet, sad face;
I'll never have another chance for today's special grace.
Reminds me always that I must think about the day that was given me.
It is time for quiet reflecting on what I did and what I said,
Thinking of how I followed my mission and who I may have misled,
Spent in quiet contemplation and in saying a silent prayer,
For the many people whose life and love I'm privileged to share.
A bit of melancholy usually presents its sweet, sad face;
I'll never have another chance for today's special grace.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Managing My Mission
What is to be my mission we ask ourselves after our "life's work" is done?
It seems to me that after children and paychecks, our work has just begun.
We must remain available to assist, advise and guide the young;
It will teach us patience and will help to channel the high-strung.
I was never encouraged to ask what I wanted or had the talent to be.
I did not choose a life's path; a life's path instead chose me.
I fell into marriage and motherhood like falling down a deep well;
This meant much of my children's childhood, I made a living hell.
I am so fortunate that they have given me a chance for a do-over
By allowing me into their children's lives under the "Granny" cover.
This has allowed me to redeem myself in little bits and pieces
So that I now have the ability to share what life really teaches.
I always wanted to be a reporter, but didn't want to chase tragedy.
I simply want to observe, question, and report on what I daily see.
I do not need to seek drama, as drama seems to ever be seeking me;
I don't so much want to judge it as to convert it to dramedy.
It seems to me that after children and paychecks, our work has just begun.
We must remain available to assist, advise and guide the young;
It will teach us patience and will help to channel the high-strung.
I was never encouraged to ask what I wanted or had the talent to be.
I did not choose a life's path; a life's path instead chose me.
I fell into marriage and motherhood like falling down a deep well;
This meant much of my children's childhood, I made a living hell.
I am so fortunate that they have given me a chance for a do-over
By allowing me into their children's lives under the "Granny" cover.
This has allowed me to redeem myself in little bits and pieces
So that I now have the ability to share what life really teaches.
I always wanted to be a reporter, but didn't want to chase tragedy.
I simply want to observe, question, and report on what I daily see.
I do not need to seek drama, as drama seems to ever be seeking me;
I don't so much want to judge it as to convert it to dramedy.
The Fates of Our Foremothers
It seems to me that religious upbringing is to help define a life's mission greater than one's immediate pleasure and release at all costs from stresses of our animal instincts.
What confounds so many young women today is how to choose their life's mission. We are now faced with so many choices that were not available to our foremothers. When I was speaking to a couple of high school sophomores about their ambitions, they were very sure of their choices in professions. Upon hearing that, when I was their ages, all the women I knew were automatically expected to become wives and mothers, one of the girls replied, "I wish it was that easy." Easy? I wish.
Our educations prepared us for becoming doctors and lawyers, but acted as if becoming the co-creators of human beings and bringing them up to be moral men and women needed nothing other than a set of static rules and a stick. How foolish we were to take the path of family life so for granted.
We could never have even envisioned a book called What to Expect When You're Expecting. Even we who had never gotten a crying baby to settle down (to laugh yes, but not to settle down) were left to figure it out on our own. The closest we came to parenting advice was from Dr. Spock who believed in disciplining even small babies until they bent to our wills.
Forget about advice on life as a couple. We were told that once you married, you could never change any behavior of your man, so we simply learned to live with the resignation to that belief. And we dared not risk sex before the man "bought the cow" because we may end up at the mercy of a damning society for the support of a fatherless child. Men were taught that he way to have easy sex was to marry, even though all who have rared children know this not to be true.
Our greatest ambition for our marriages was that our husbands brought home their paychecks and didn't beat us to death. For these concessions, we were expected to accede to their sexual desires or accept their infidelity. Men had "needs," you know.
I have found some Eastern tomes on married love, but they never seem to have the lovers locked in intimate embraces that include shedding dogs and dirty diapers. I wish I could remember where I read it, but someone once pointed out to me that love is when to people are passionate about the same thing. The closest I could come to finding that quote was this one by C.S. Lewis, “What draws people to be friends is that they see the same truth. They share it.” The problem is that we don't define that about which we are passionate before we pick a path for our lives and mates to accompany us on these paths.
A lot of my friends are distressed by all this unmarried sex. I'm encouraged that the young people seem to be defining the difference between animal attraction and the friendship that grows out of shared passion for something outside one's selves. I believe that, in a lot of cases, they feel pressured into adding the sexual component by the erroneous belief foisted on many generations that males and females cannot have intimate friendships without sex "happening."
Even in this age of AIDS and DNA testing, many males are still brought up to treat their bodies as tools of conquest. Semen and ova are handed off to perfect strangers, as if these are not the seeds of human beings with the potential for souls. We have made mockery of the old-fashioned belief that our bodies are temples of The Holy Spirit.
I would prefer for young people to discover if it is only their animal instincts that attract them to each other before they attempt to bring children up with a shared set of values. Only in this way can we hope for a moral, civil society instead of continuing to foster packs of hyenas competing for the sake of the conquest. My husband once said to me that he believes that the real thing that separates humans from other animals is the ability to say, "No." I believe it is our ability to redirect our animal energies.
Would I prefer that we be taught responsible ways to recognize and responsibly relieve or refocus our own sexual tensions? Yes. Do I see that happening in America in my lifetime? I wish...
What confounds so many young women today is how to choose their life's mission. We are now faced with so many choices that were not available to our foremothers. When I was speaking to a couple of high school sophomores about their ambitions, they were very sure of their choices in professions. Upon hearing that, when I was their ages, all the women I knew were automatically expected to become wives and mothers, one of the girls replied, "I wish it was that easy." Easy? I wish.
Our educations prepared us for becoming doctors and lawyers, but acted as if becoming the co-creators of human beings and bringing them up to be moral men and women needed nothing other than a set of static rules and a stick. How foolish we were to take the path of family life so for granted.
We could never have even envisioned a book called What to Expect When You're Expecting. Even we who had never gotten a crying baby to settle down (to laugh yes, but not to settle down) were left to figure it out on our own. The closest we came to parenting advice was from Dr. Spock who believed in disciplining even small babies until they bent to our wills.
Forget about advice on life as a couple. We were told that once you married, you could never change any behavior of your man, so we simply learned to live with the resignation to that belief. And we dared not risk sex before the man "bought the cow" because we may end up at the mercy of a damning society for the support of a fatherless child. Men were taught that he way to have easy sex was to marry, even though all who have rared children know this not to be true.
Our greatest ambition for our marriages was that our husbands brought home their paychecks and didn't beat us to death. For these concessions, we were expected to accede to their sexual desires or accept their infidelity. Men had "needs," you know.
I have found some Eastern tomes on married love, but they never seem to have the lovers locked in intimate embraces that include shedding dogs and dirty diapers. I wish I could remember where I read it, but someone once pointed out to me that love is when to people are passionate about the same thing. The closest I could come to finding that quote was this one by C.S. Lewis, “What draws people to be friends is that they see the same truth. They share it.” The problem is that we don't define that about which we are passionate before we pick a path for our lives and mates to accompany us on these paths.
A lot of my friends are distressed by all this unmarried sex. I'm encouraged that the young people seem to be defining the difference between animal attraction and the friendship that grows out of shared passion for something outside one's selves. I believe that, in a lot of cases, they feel pressured into adding the sexual component by the erroneous belief foisted on many generations that males and females cannot have intimate friendships without sex "happening."
Even in this age of AIDS and DNA testing, many males are still brought up to treat their bodies as tools of conquest. Semen and ova are handed off to perfect strangers, as if these are not the seeds of human beings with the potential for souls. We have made mockery of the old-fashioned belief that our bodies are temples of The Holy Spirit.
I would prefer for young people to discover if it is only their animal instincts that attract them to each other before they attempt to bring children up with a shared set of values. Only in this way can we hope for a moral, civil society instead of continuing to foster packs of hyenas competing for the sake of the conquest. My husband once said to me that he believes that the real thing that separates humans from other animals is the ability to say, "No." I believe it is our ability to redirect our animal energies.
Would I prefer that we be taught responsible ways to recognize and responsibly relieve or refocus our own sexual tensions? Yes. Do I see that happening in America in my lifetime? I wish...
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