Pronunciation and Peace

I'm supposed to be helping my neighbor learn to pronounce English;
For universal pronunciations of any language, we can only wish.
I have a workbook of everyday polite, conversations that are boring,
But our sharing of bawdy stories has sent her understanding soaring.

We both share grandma wisdom, in which our lives are full.
We laugh as much as we converse; earthy stories are universal.
She took English at several churches and was usually quite bored;
Apparently they didn't know how new memories are truly stored.

When I tutored a child of seven, my teacher-daughter said to me,
"Teach this child familiar words that he can plainly see."
This second-grade child resonated to his own family's names;
So, for my new student, I'm doing the adult version of the same.

She came over full of sadness and worry for her country;
The president had died, leaving her people leader free.
I spent the first half hour commiserating in her pain;
By the time she went home, she was laughing again.

She's a respected doctor of law in her homeland;
Here, only her husband, can she talk to as a friend.
Though she is younger than I am by thirteen years,
Naughty Catholic girl stories bring us both to tears.

She talks of her many experiences in her international world;
During these rowdy exercises, her English sentences unfurl.
We are now at the point where I want her to teach dancing
To my friends who will, her culture, enjoy understanding.

Multicultural communication can be accomplished in ways
That, through universal language of laughter, has all of us engaged.
Is there any one of us without a old naughty relation's stories
That will cross over any race, religion, or language boundaries?

Dance, sing, laugh, cry, touch; there is always a way
To get across, with emotion, what we really want to say.
And, if we are willing to be mutually vulnerable,
We'll create a world that is, in peace on earth, full.

Fight to Make It Right

Things we can't talk about are things "polite" society rejects;
This is the reason we have been forbidden to speak of sex.
But in all the history of the animal kingdom, including humans,
Sex has been the strongest force in The Sacred Spirit's plans.

What a travesty of The Spirit's source to deny spiritual sex
By taking the power of the physical out of the sacred's context.
By being taught to be ashamed and afraid of our animal natures,
We have become less noble than other living creatures.

We were given free will in order to make responsible decisions,
But the religious leaders have treated individuals with derision.
Couples were robbed of authority in defining limits of their broods
Based on what, for their union, were considered, by them, good.

There should be no more sacred bonds upon the earth
Than the unions of man and woman in order to give birth.
Because our religions have long-since become civil institutions,
They have perverted the privileges of family solutions.

The house divided against itself has always been doomed to fail,
Like that of religion and government, against which we should rail.
Domestic partnerships, designed only to protect property,
Should never have been accepted as sacred marital unity.

The churches wielded such influence over government,
We forgot the reasons for our ancestors commitment.
We must insist on actual division of state and church motives;
One seeks to take and the other is created to give.

Religions set parameters on behaviors they will support;
The "charity" of government is evil's power resort.
Religious charity is a system of personal accountability,
From which our country's enforced giving is free.

In days of old, charity was the responsibility of community,
Not something handed out with complete anonymity.
When a small group knows and vouches for an individual
The whole community, on the recipient's action, has some pull.

We must stop funding individual "charity" with anonymous taxes;
With this system in place, all justice and conscience relaxes.
Even Jesus, our guiding Jew, said, between Caesar and our religions,
We should always recognize distinctly moral divisions.

Did he not preach limits to the amounts workers should give
To the poor and downtrodden to help them to live?
He did not say, "Plant, harvest, and cook it for them."
This, in truth, takes away the dignity of the human.

And when he died upon the cross, as an innocent human,
He didn't take off their crosses those who'd sinned against man.
He recognized that there were two steps to true repentance
The first was to satisfy the human wrong, in the present tense.

Their are so many who want to deny responsibility to humans
As part of our inclusion in The Sacred Spirit's redemption plan.
Only those who accept The Sacred Spirit and live accordingly
Can recognize and honor all  life's appointed sacred dignity.

Their are laws deemed by humanity seeking earthly peace;
These have been instruments for some worldly wars to cease.
If warring nations agree to honor cease fires and truces,
Don't we see that humanity, to pawns in games, this reduces?

I, as a mother, put my body and my soul at great risk
So that my husband's spirit and mine could, in new life, exist.
There is no power on earth that could make me send my son
To save the greedy values that my nation and religion have become.

Neither sex nor war should be inflicted on the innocent,
But this is how the energies of the supremely powerful are spent.
Domination is the game for which they set the rules;
All creation is simply treated as their power game tools.

In my lifetime, there has never been a war to protect our land;
The definition of "just war" has been in corporations' hands.
I will not only not send my sons, daughters, and granddaughters;
I will also fight to defend any innocent person's slaughter.

Until the leaders of our nation are prepared to be just and brave,
Instead of living by the rules of power that protect the depraved,
I will continue to promote the destruction of their power bases,
Hoping that their fall, eventually, corporate power erases.

I have very little hope that, in my lifetime, religions will lose power
Or that our less-privileged will, at their commands, fail to cower,
But, my great hope for the future of all humanity
Is that the generations coming after us are Divine Right of Kings free.

Neighbors, Friends, "Family"

What fun I had yesterday; our next-door neighbors dropped in.
One came to practice her English; she has become a friend.
She came in to learn; we began with coffee and a few laughs
About something that, in the day before's lesson, had come to pass.

She had been sharing a recipe that she called "blasted potatoes;"
I struggled with her over pronunciation, but this is what she chose.
She finally, in frustration, spelled the words on a pad for me,
Hoping I would understand if only I could hear and see.

In the dead of night after this lesson, I woke up with a start;
Her words, during my sleep, had taken themselves apart.
Because she had explained the recipe's preparation process,
My subconscious realized what her procedure suggests.

"She was saying basted!" my subconscious screamed.
Perhaps this came together in something I'd just dreamed.
"You were saying basted," I sang out, and we celebrated.
The tiny victories in communication can't be overrated.

Then my most pious Jewish friends came for lunch.
We had pork and potatoes; they're not an orthodox bunch.
I always love our meetings; we discuss much theology;
Our talks are about our shared Judeo-Christian history.

Our religions' foolish territorial natures cause our laughter,
But we know, among others, these religions cause disaster.
Would that all with differences could be fascinated by others,
And honor each other's ways, like sisters and brothers.

When these friends had taken their leave, with much hesitation,
I thought I was finished with that day's community relations.
My student and her husband dropped by to consult with Richard,
Concerning a family medical problem about which they'd just heard.

They left after a nice visit; surely it was time for our privacy.
Here came our other next-door neighbor, with a request of me.
A three-time veteran of Iraq, and college student who can't cook;
He had a stir-fry kit that he brought over for me to take a look.

I had offered to be his pretend mom and cook for him
If he would be willing to be Richard's techno-savvy friend.
Neighbors, friends, "family" -- what better way to spend the day?
These are the blessings of life for which I always did pray.

Shared Spirit

There's a video going around the internet of a father "giving away" his daughter. As is common for my reactions to things, what makes many smile sweetly, puts my teeth on edge. The daughter in the video is a nurse who has traveled the world with the missions. She is obviously fully adult, and her obviously southern, bible-belt believing father is "giving his girl away" to her husband. "How sweet," many say. "How sad," I say,  because we have not moved on from this archaic scripture-sanctioned salute to slavery.

As our children are growing, it is wonderful to begin forming friendships with them as they come of adult age. This is a tentative task, at first, as boundaries must continually be reevaluated and moved closer and closer to equal status. When our children are grown, what I pray for is inclusion in the partnerships that they form in their adult lives. It is barbaric, in my opinion, to continue acting as if our daughters are chattel to be owned and traded.

In functional families, the older parents should make themselves available to assist and guide the less experienced family, at the request of the younger couple. In this way, community is expanded; there is no joking about "Now she's your problem," when the couple is wed. There is no "gaining a daughter" or "losing a son" involved. There is simply growth of sacred community.

It is not easy to accept that our children will make their own decisions, without our input being their primary guide. Healthy marriage partners focus on the values that they share to create a new nucleus of family. It is also not easy to sit on the sidelines, with our hearts ever open to a call from our closest community members. The most difficult part for me has been in areas where my values and those of the new couples don't agree. All I can do is state my boundaries and refuse to take part in any activity that too severely challenges my boundaries.

It is our duty as community members, in any form of friendship, to refuse to participate in destruction of our own values. It is sad that often protection of our boundaries means ejection from the communities closest to us. It is the nature of life that all physical things, including friends, come to a physical ending, but a great consolation to know that spirit shared lives on in us forever.

Lively Lessons

Preaching is not what converts a soul;
It's practice with guidance that makes us whole.
When we bond with another, child or man,
Only then can we help them understand.

Why is "no" an adult's favorite word?
We're correcting before the child is heard.
The color-blind child sees a brown tree;
Is he wrong when green is what I see?

Who put certain colors in our heads
Where the color-blind child dreads
Any attempts at coloring or art,
And eventually thinks he's not smart?

What of penmanship class to show
Writing styles that went out long ago?
If we want the child to communicate
Don't use it for chances to, him, berate.

It takes much time to form a thought;
Many children feel overwrought
When faced with impatient adults,
Who, then, their intellects insult.

The days of shoving children into a mold
Should have gone out in days of old.
By labeling everything unique a disease,
It is only the despots that are pleased.

We all may learn through what we hear,
But putting in practice makes lessons clear.
While some learn by what they see,
Others learn with kinetic energy.

We are given five senses for learning
Why to only two do we keep returning?
The more of them that teachers utilize
The less our children are minimized.

America is meant to be multi-cultural;
Only Anglo culture is nurtured in schools.
Sitting down for hours and listening
Is not the way that all children can win.

What others say turning what we can do,
Seems to apply to only a few.
If someone stands beside a child while learning
The lessons taught, may continue burning.

Everything we do with a child's rhythm
Is a way to impart our values to him
If we fit ourselves into a child's mold
It seems that we may never feel old.


Tasks that work a child's growing limbs
Make their lessons parts of them.
Here's a new and quite radical notion:
Let's have all our lessons while in motion.

Sacred Smiles

The Sacred Spirit = faces and other manifestations of God = Infinite Universal Energy = The Infinite "I Am." = Sacred in humanity = Sacred Spirit of Jesus and all who lead us back to our sacred origins with their own lives. Upon their physical deaths, The Sacred Spirit that was manifest in them, some in greater measures than others, is left to inhabit the earth.

Is this also the sound "Om" which is believed by some to be the sound of the Infinite Universal Energy? How can Infinite Universal Energy have only one name, one "face," one manifestation, and one path for faith? How can there have only been one book of The Sacred Spirit ever recorded?

All of creation may be The Sacred Spirit enclosed in physical manifestations. Some manifestations are in human form, some of these forms with more Sacred Spirit than others. We may be helpless in choosing how much of The Sacred Spirit inhabits our bodies at birth, but all adults with normal judgement can control how and with whom they connect. The choices we make either grow or diminish The Sacred Spirit in us and The Sacred Spirit in those around us. Sometimes all it takes is a sacred smile to light the lamp of The Sacred Spirit in a soul.

Receiving Re-Birth

I've sat in the presence of many a friend,
Wishing that my scarred life would end.
They lent me their ears and their joy,
That I passed on to my girl and boy.

My children are grown; there are none
Who now need what I've become.
It is up to me to take my own reins,
And find the path that's been ordained.

Perhaps finding it is not to be;
Maybe it will freely find me.
Until then, I write of the everyday;
This is how I'm led to pray.

I see other's lives and am inspired,
By the energy with which they're fired.
As an observer, I like to spread
The joy by which others are led.

It's a fact of life that, as we age,
We must learn to step off-stage.
It is enough for me to observe others
Practicing being good sisters and brothers.

And the friends who are parts of my soul
Continue on in making me whole.
I live in gratitude for their presents
Of sharing with me their very essence.

My Sacred Spirit has many faces
That neither time nor distance erases.
Everyone who ever truly loved me
Remains a part of my spirit in eternity.

It is sad that also the great pain
Comes to visit again and again,
Not only my spirit, but the earth.
I pray that our chaos results in re-birth.