Relationships and Righteousness

Bullying comes from emotions we aren't allowed to express;
In our everyday worlds, there are many things we can't digest.
What purpose does it serve to bring all our frustrations back home,
Leading to the inevitability that we will eventually be left alone?

"Love means never having to say you're sorry" is a bunch of bull,
But this is the kind of thinking in which our world is full.
We must say we're truly sorry to begin again and rebuild trust
But, we've all, to the letter of old laws, been forced to adjust.

Communion with those who care for us should be our common goal;
This is something that, our legalistic religions, from us stole.
If I hurt you and I want to make sincere amends,
This is all the ground on which our relationship should depend.

But the problem seems to continue to be who was wrong and who right.
Why does our society seem to so enjoy a vicious fight?
Those who don't enjoy fighting, turn their heads and walk away;
Are there no balanced, righteous people left on earth to have their say?

Children's Church

Why do we want to believe that the enlightenment of one
Is more valid than those when human thought processes were begun?
I haven't seen many churches that teach proper respect;
One person has the answers; the beliefs of others, they reject.
Instead of having grumpy grown-ups allowed to set the mood,
I'd like to hear the little children sing out their gratitude.
The children would also give us lectures on what constitutes fair play,
Then they would gladly tell us when we are not walking in the right way.
But instead of allowing our children to call us out on our lies,
We scold our children until, fairness and truth, they despise.
You can't learn to have faith by studying the rules of what's right.
Is it that we are all afraid of our own, and each other's, light?
Why do we hand over to others our powers to perceive?
We are left with deadened souls for which all creation grieves.

No One's Freedom Is Really Free

I would gladly give up any more years,
If I felt I could give them to another.
I may even insist that they only be given
To my grandchild, child, sister, or brother.

In this life on earth, we must make choices,
Many that we really don't want to make.
In a truly moral society,
We'd make many for justice's sake.

We all have a right to our choices,
But our consequences will be born by someone.
By closing our eyes to this reality,
We, from the inevitable, continue to run.

Many march against life's injustices
Because pain of others is easiest to ignore,
Until the world's many inequities
Come knocking at our own doors.

Children are now given the right to sue
Their parents for neglect and abuse,
But without other families to take them in
Their freedoms are of little use.

We create large organizations
And fund government bureaucracies,
Convincing ourselves that these agencies
Will fill all human needs.

We don't insist that people we support
Live by the values of a just society.
We allow them to continue imposing on us
More generations of irresponsibility.

Corporate heads and government leaders
Are sheltered from liability.
Others are left to carry their burdens,
Because no one's freedom is really free.

Is This Proper Parenting?

I'm tired of parents who don't care what their children will be
As long as their children grow up to be "happy."
They seem to set no standards for behavior
As though the desires of the moment are all there are to savor.
Wouldn't we be better off as a society
If each of us helped our children accept responsibility,
Not only for their happiness, but also for a sense of purpose,
Maybe, something like working to make the world more just?

I encouraged my children to find there own way;
I trusted they could hear what The Spirit had to say.
I told them I want them to be good citizens,
Because I believe that is where good values begin,
Citizens of this world and all of creation,
Inviting others to a fairness celebration.
I believe that they, on their own, have come to see
What their greater life purposes are meant to be.

Anti-Abortion or Pro-Personal Commitment?

As a grandparent, I know it is difficult
To firmly discipline without finding fault.
If I do not discipline myself, first and foremost,
I am, in fact, of sin in my children, a host.
This process seems to start in our genes;
So many pro-creators have no moral means.

I would love to live long enough to see a day
That the word "abortion" we would not ever say.
But, is it really better to procreate
In a starving or abusive amoral state?
I think it may be better to return
Babies to God, before they are by us, spurned.

It is the fact of natural woman and man
To want to add to their own blood clans.
It is also true that babies who are defective
Are often, by adoptive couples, rejected.
In principle, we may want all babies to save,
But, in fact, in facing truth, we must be brave.

There may come a time when all children are wanted
And by the protection of separate clans, we'll be undaunted.
There may be a time when no man will rape,
And from the abuse of power all of us will escape.
There may be a time when we hold in our arms
All the vulnerable, to protect them with our own lives,from harm.

Until there is one committed person to claim
Each child we try, from death, to restrain,
There is no real hope for the children to run
To a community in which we would want them to be one.
A village without personal commitment may be
A holding cell, but it is not a family.

A Litany to Life

As a child, we had many names for The Almighty
In our church, they were referred to in litanies.

Even though I do try to understand
The desire to think of God as a man;
Good men create an aura of protection
For which we feel awe and affection.
But the bodies of men can't contain
The glories of all Creation's reign.

It seems to me that it is better
To, our imaginations, unfetter.
While sitting in the shade of a tree,
That tree feels like God to me.
While watching a baby be baptized,
The glory of Faith makes me want to cry.

The darkening skies above my head
Fill me with awe, not with dread.
The endless blue of the skies above
Are a sign to me of Infinite Love.
The dedication it takes to cure cancer
Is, in the scientists, my God's answer.

The time I spend with a friend on the phone
Is God's love, through me, brought home.
The soup that my aunt makes for me
Is another place, Eternal Love, I see.
In the sweat of my loving husband's brow,
I realize that my Eternity includes now.

I will daily sing songs of Infinite Wonder,
For a child's laugh, lightening and thunder.
The fish that feed us from the deep,
The soft, warm bed on which we sleep.
I will not allow others to reduce and define
The varieties of the faces of God that are mine.

Listening to the Enlightened

A soul sister with whom I discuss family life, theology, and spirituality has pointed out that today, in her religion, is honored as the Feast of the Transfiguration of Jesus. This feast honors the tradition that Jesus, at one time in his walk on this earth, was seen by several of his followers as shining with a holy light, speaking with Moses and the prophet Elijah. Her religious tradition holds the belief that the voice of God was heard saying, “This is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased. Listen to Him!”

Bishop Iraneus of the second century Christian church is quoted as saying about the transfiguration, "the glory of God is a live human being and a truly human life is the vision of God."

Would that we believed that we are all capable of being transfigured by Grace and that the glory of this Grace would lead us to live truly human lives, shining with this vision of Grace and Glory. Perhaps then all will hear a voice saying, "These are my children in whom I am well pleased. Listen to them."