The Route Which I Rather

I watch with sadness as people protect their emotions from me;
My passion doesn't mean that, from moral boundaries, I'm free.
I will no longer be held responsible for the temptations of others;
This burden has been carried too long by the generations of our mothers.

We all need celebration because we're all children under our skins.
When we accept that adults must be passionless, depression settles in.
Most children naturally celebrate each moment and every new sensation;
It is our own fear of losing control that puts an end to their elation.

Once something is accepted in our heads, how do we make our hearts go along?
Do we simply accept on faith that we will, one day, sing joyful songs?
Do we have a responsibility to actively seek joy in our lives;
Or is martyrdom of spirit what it takes for our souls to survive?

I have no issue with suffering when one is working toward a goal,
But turning triumph into tragedy seems to make many feel whole.
They wear their pain like purple hearts for everyone to see,
And to inflict their pain on others seems to fill their hearts with glee.

Why do we focus so much time worshiping the sad martyrs,
When we should be rejoicing as Creation's sons and daughters?
All passion can be productive; but we've turned passion into pain and fear.
Being made ashamed to show even love to those we hold most dear.

If you want to know my boundaries, ask what I've learned in my eventful life.
Don't assume that because I laugh, it has been free from strife.
But very few want to hear of the wisdom I have gathered,
So living with less people has become the life route which I rather.

Hurtful Humor

I've hurt another friend's feelings with what comes out of my mouth. I'm sorry, but I'm worn out by making amends for my lifetime of mistakes. I hope she will forgive me and we can move on.

The first rule of humor is to know your audience. The inside jokes that I share with my son make some people itch, but I don't necessarily know who these people are or what offends them until they begin scratching. As a class clown, I sometimes step over the lines into what some think is inappropriate. Most people can't seem to define what they find inappropriate ahead of time, but they know their own boundaries when someone steps on them. As a woman, I'm apparently supposed to already know these things.

A true friend will tell me they are offended and move on to the rest of our relationship. If I value the friend's feelings, I will attempt to change my behavior while with that person. This doesn't become a matter of right and wrong; it is a matter of valuing each other's feelings. It may limit the occasions in which we relate, but it will hopefully not adversely affect the underlying relationship.

I grew up with boy country cousins my age, four brothers, and a Cajun culture on my daddy's side. These were earthy people who used humor to cope with all the scary things in life. I really embraced this coping strategy; it seemed preferable to hiding in my room like my older sister or being angry all they time like my almost twin.

I did have to learn some modicum of decorum when I was raising a sweet, gentle daughter in the Bible belt, but it sweetness never came naturally to me. I looked forward to getting old because old people can get away with almost anything...until their children have them declared incompetent and send them to nursing homes. I was so sure that moving back to my baudy beginnings would provide the atmosphere I needed to truly be my most brazen and baudy self, but it seems the only hope for me is to hang exclusively with men. Most of them seem to be immune to my indiscretions, but even this leaves me in a quandary.

There are still many who believe that a woman can't truly be friends with a man without the threat of a physical relationship. And, at least in the south, there are still people who think that men and women can't have a discussion in the same room. I had so embraced the whole women's lib movement because I thought it would bring down those barriers, but boy was I wrong!

My problem is in finding how to put the genie back in the bottle after five years in the forest with my man who grew up on a farm and went to all-boy boarding schools. Until I get my mind back into motherhood mode, I guess I'd better keep my lips zipped. Either that or the rest of my life I'll be doing penance for the hurt I have placed on other people.

Does God Giggle?

Does God giggle, or is He always "Harrumphing?"
Because if God doesn't tickle or giggle,
I know I wouldn't be happy in heaven.
And what about all this singing stuff
For those who can hardly carry a tune?
Will the little angels without music or song
Fly forever in silent stupors?

Will there be wet kisses and snuggles up in heaven
Or will the saints send the children
To another room to play?
It seems a shame that the glorified bodies
Will never experience hunger or thirst.
Homemade lemonade, sno balls, and
Fresh baked cookies it seems will also be out.

Children seem to be the cherubim already among us;
They sing the songs of joy and hope
So we look forward to another day.
If all our passions are to be pushed down
And quiet is the only way to peace,
Why look forward to a paradise,
Where no one will ever giggle again?

Dependence and Divinity

We are each free and dependent on the actions of others.
We are all sadly mistaken when we choose to believe that we
Are all free do what we want and to be whatever we want to be;

Don't insist that we share our paths to paradise.
The important thing is finding the path to our final destination;
We have all been given separate ways to fulfill the missions of our creation.

I do not think that force is a way to become one.
There are many pretending to follow paths in which they don't believe;
This does not mean that, our own faith directives, they've achieved.

Many know the outside, but don't dig deeply.
I have mistakenly challenged the beliefs of others;
Hence, I've lost relationships with sisters and brothers.

Faith is supposed to bring peaceful acceptance.
I was taught to question authority, rules, and regulations;
This seems to lead to the discord faiths sow in earth's many nations.

I have found one thing to be universally true.
We'll never find peace until we honor the sacred in each bit of creation;
We must faithfully work together to achieve all of creation's salvation.

Fanning the Flames of Friendship

"There is nothing else exactly like the joy of friendship. It is such a blessing to have a person on earth in whom you can confide with confidence. However, that is just a small taste of what it is like to have a relationship with the son of God. Jesus is a friend that 'sticketh closer than a brother'." This is a quote from a follower of this blog who is a man of the cloth and a life-long missionary.

I'm currently recuperating from surgery. It is the friends who surround me with their willing hands, offered with loving hearts that sustain me. They may be praying for me in the silence of their rooms, but they also put their prayers in action when asked for assistance in healing and nourishing my body and those of their fellow friends. They have laid their loving hands on each other and on me with hugs, kind words, gifts of laughter and reminiscences, time simply watching and waiting, and many meals. All of this ministry fans the flames of our friendship, drawing us ever closer to each other.

I believe that we are all siblings in Divinity, and that Jesus is an exemplar for how to be the best family of humanity members we can be. He combined the extreme power of his own Divinity with the rules for right living handed down to him from the many generations of righteous ancestors preceding him. He taught us a new way, not through blood but through our Spirits of Divinity, to connect to our fellow humans. He set this example by being fully human and fully friend to all who asked for his friendship.

Friendship is the food that feeds our souls. The Divine Spirit that Jesus embodied in the flesh is still with us and in us, and is meant to grow as we share it with others. We are all called to be exemplars of The Divine in our earthly forms. Our challenge is to stay open to all others while remaining true to our own spark of The Divine.

Friends Are Family that We Choose

The baggage that we carry from generation to generation
Prohibit us from reaching our Divinely ordained stations.
We sometimes have to seek clean emotional slates
To start anew without our ancestors' mistakes.

Friends are family that we choose;
They may be replacements for family we lose.
Whether through entreaties of our own or of theirs,
Friends answer the lonesome heart's prayers.

So many people want to manipulate
Our emotions to control us or their own fates.
We must be careful to only call friend
Those we can trust with the self within.

What peace resides in an open heart,
Shared with someone who is truly a part
Of our journey toward Eternal Grace
On earth as in our final resting place.

Our Infinite Auras

"There will be enmity between your seed and her seed." How well we humans are living up to this prediction, as is obvious in the state of family life, a microcosm of the community of all humans. Adam and Eve taught Cain and Able to be in competition for their god's favor, and every generation since then has been destroying each other in an effort to garner the most grace. How sad it is that we don't see we are all descendants of Divinity.

The way we choose our networks reminds me of a cruel game that was practiced on the playground of my parochial grade school. When the "in" crowd wanted to exclude someone that they didn't consider "cool," they would gather in a circle, entwine their arms and chant, "Criss-cross, apple sauce, nobody else can play with us." This seems to be the way of so many societies.

The majority builds their masses by creating contests to become part of the perceived privileged in receiving a stake in a limited amount of resources. Even the grace of their god is featured as finite. What hubris for any group to act like only they have seen the face of The Infinite!

I am encouraged by the Pentecostal movement, even if most of my exposure has been to the Christian version. It seems that we are slowly moving back into an era of understanding that the Spirit of Wholeness (Holiness) is infinite and universally available. What we each have to do is embrace Grace and allow others into our Infinite auras.