Blog
Miracles
In every dawn veiled by silent fog,
before the sun scatters its mystery;
In every dark crevice of earth’s womb,
before the seed breaks open to root;
In every gasp of the unknown,
before certainty cements itself:
a miracle of wild possibility.
How Shall I Receive You?
As an ass, playing the role of jester?
As the outlandish actor in the scene,
cast to make the comfortable laugh
and the disenchanted daydream?
As a stone, the unseen understudy?
As the patient watcher in the wings,
ready to leap up and shout one line
if only the leads will share the light?
As cloaks and palms, a garish set?
As the paint splashed underfoot in
greens, purples, blues, and golds—
the backdrop of a dystopian circus?
How shall I receive you on your way?
How shall I meet the holy ridiculous,
the laughingstock of stately triumph,
the momentary flash of impossibility?
Restraint
The LORD God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.” - Genesis 2:16-17 (NRSV) When the new year dawned last month, my social media feed was filled with people saying...
Ashes
Breath by breath, grief by grief, joy by joy, pain by heart-rending pain these fragile ashes turn and return and resign to the Holy, to the Trembling, to the Deep Mystery, to the Heritage of Relentless Love without which these same ashes could only sift and settle...
Stubborn
Most Holy Judge: for what we plainly know but cannot bring ourselves to confront, forgive us and be merciful to those harmed by the fallout. The truth does not need prophets yet you send them anyway, each one an invitation to understand and repent, to make way for...
Tent-Making
Let me pitch my tent by a lamppost in the snow somewhere in a dream of witches and wardrobes and wonders that taste of delight and courage. Let me roll out a heavy tarp under a mysterious new moon resting alongside the wise wind and the patient oak tree, until...
I Cannot Fly
I cannot fly, O God of the soaring eagle; I cannot even leap with a dancer's grace. But today I can wake and I can rise, and perhaps the strong wind will remind me not to be so rooted in fear. I cannot measure up, O God of the starry heavens; I cannot even pretend to...
From One Grasshopper to Another
It is God who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to live in; who brings princes to naught, and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing. - Isaiah...
Tremors
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God. God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved. - Psalm 46:2-5 excerpts (NRSV) My daughter...
Patience
Paul stood up and began to speak: “The God of this people Israel made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm God led them out of it. For about forty years God put up with them in the wilderness.” - Acts 13:16-18, excerpts (NRSV)...
Love, Rise
Sun, rise and welcome the new day I have dreaded Love, rise and stand in the gap of my silent fears I watch the sunrise because I long for your warmth River, rise and carry away this ache of sorrow Love, rise and wash over me with wonder I come to the water because I...
