You alluded me. I smelled fresh moonlight, felt your light bless me and I wonder…
Perhaps these moments are just to be between us, deep within, held close in the tapestry of my inner being, gazing at the moon.
I am offered a window to the unseen God.
My heart opens and gratitude flows, knowing the Divine is not absent, but a living light.
Shining in all beings
Patti Joy Posan – Sewanee, TN
I never thought to pray with sparrows, black throated wild
and scrambling for seeds cast carelessly on the hillside.
They hover throughout the hours like unceasing prayers
Giving thanks when no words can.
Warily they brave the rains, the frenzied force, even my hoarse voice
an unknown thunder in their world. Spring’s worst storms roll by
and they sing unheard, choral chirping drowned in human despair
Yet the birds of heaven will teach us.
Tomorrow I will not seek the wood-dark birds; I must wait
for monochrome March skies to bend into blue, and scatter millet
for featherless creatures, new and startled, who do not yet know me.
And later, much later, pray with unfevered heart and rejoice in light
The healing of a new day.
Marilyn Hanchett
Westminster, Maryland
It is a breathless moment
when, coming to the edge
Of what confounds me,
I pause and ask myself
if I have courage
To trust completely
and risk failure,
Sometimes I have faltered,
Turned back into the
Wilderness of self-contained
existence and stumbled,
But when I listen to the
beating of my heart
I hear the voice of
My Creator calling me
to step outside myself,
And I am always held
safe and secure.
by C.C. Johnson
Diocese of Lexington
Parish – St. Raphael the Archangel
I finger the yarn,
Checking its strength and quality,
Comparing the weights and colors.
The shop keeper watches me,
Unsure and unconvinced.
I am a foreign woman in a foreign land.
Possessing only the barest words of her language.
I pick up a particularly beautiful skein.
It is soft and obviously hand-dyed.
And sighing the sigh of true appreciation
I meet her eye and breathe,
“Sehr shon”. (There are umlauts over the ‘o’, ..)
“Very lovely.”
She stops,
Then beams,
Proud that the quality
Of the material she loves
Transcends.
We nod in agreement
As women (and knitters) will sometimes do,
With shared understanding
Of the humble importance
Of simple
Useful things
Which can only be created
One stitch at a time.
Shared with permission by Carrie Newcomer
All that is hard and heavy turns to spirit.
It cannot help but eventually
Become like a cup of ink
That is poured into the ocean.
I do not doubt that for a time
The ink darkens the water,
Obscures and displaces the light,
Leaching out its tendrils
Staining what it touches.
But eventually,
Finally,
The ink must break down into its smallest elements,
And even the stains become only faint shadows
Barely noticeable to the outer eye.
This does not belittle the awful impact of a cup full of shadow.
It is only to say, that in an ocean of goodness,
In an expanse of health and light,
A cup of dark can only prevail for so long,
Until it is overcome and transformed back into spirit,
Back into its smallest elements,
Received into one body,
To be made whole
And healed.
Used with permission by Carrie Newcomer
A crack, a slap, a painful plea A cry for help Heard, unheard, denied.
Cultural Institutional Interpersonal And… Really…personal Denied.
Don’t tell Embarrass Blame Shame
A bruise, a cut, an unhealed ache. This is not the mark of Cain.
A prayer? Jesus, in the temple, outraged. Injustice, imbalance, unsettled.
A hope? Move, toward me. Seek, heal, calm
Come to me. Help me Heal me A good day.
Strength Move, toward You On a good day
A good day My prayer today….
Voice Strength Advocacy Advocate
Spirit within me Spirit of God Be my voice.
No Enough Stop Never
Heal Voice Advocate Yes
Not alone God with me Me with you Together, with God
No Moves to Yes
You are my beloved Today Forever Always
The Rt. Rev. Laura J. Ahrens Bishop Suffragan The Episcopal Church in Connecticut
