for what it's worth

Into the Mystery

2009-05-19T07:00:00.000-07:00

Here's a comment I sent to the NY Times blogger Stanley Fish regarding his recent post God Part 2 .

Thanks Stanley Fish. For your sublime intellect and careful, thoughtful commentary. And I add, as an employee of an Episcopal church (music director for 12 or so years),
IT is not about religion.
IT is about mystery.
And for sure IT is more about the questions than the answers.

I don’t have the answers–neither does the Pope, or Christopher Hitchens, or St. Paul or Stanley Fish but I think our modern prophets and prophetesses of song and poetry help get us closer to some kind of knowing. (I’m partial to the Gospel according to Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Aretha Franklin, Ben Harper, Mary Oliver, Mark Strand, Sherman Alexie…the list goes on and on…)

I think Mary Oliver has something important to say in her poem The Summer Day

She doesn’t have the answer either, but she IS paying attention.

Good Grief

2009-04-01T07:41:00.000-07:00

Grief is kicking my ass.
This problem we humans have of loving and losing is really starting to beat me down.

Maybe because I give my heart too freely.
Maybe because loving each other is what is most important to me.
Maybe too because I've been keeping all the pain deep down inside.

I don't know.

I do know music saves me. Poetry too. Oh and there is always beauty.

Here's 2 minutes of beauty that just breaks and opens my little heart.

I'm suffering. I'm doing my best. Help.

2009-03-20T13:05:00.000-07:00

Just a word or two about my new favorite book,
Anger by Thich Nhat Hanh.
Read it.

"Darling, I am angry. I suffer.
And (with mindfulness) I am doing my best.
Darling, I need your help. Please do help me."

What more would you ever need to say?

I need it bad

2009-01-29T13:37:00.000-08:00

I need some unconditional love today.

The love that can hold you when you're feeling worthless.
The love that doesn't need definition or reason.
The love that you can count on.

How about we love each other for who we are--
who we are right now in all our messed up glory.

I need this kind of love right now.
I need it bad.

Dare you not to cry

2009-01-27T06:44:00.000-08:00

Here's another poem.
The Race by Sharon Olds
It mostly speaks for itself.
Read it aloud to someone you love.
Dare you not to cry.

Each day we go about our business...

2009-01-23T07:03:00.000-08:00

Thank you Elizabeth Alexander, author of the inaugural poem, for reminding us of where we Americans have come from and who we are now.

Reminding us of our African American praise song story and about the love that can be and grow beyond race, time or gender.

We are on the brink.
We are in need of more love than we can imagine--getting or giving.
We are walking forward into a light that is finally shining on all of us, not just some.

Let's answer Ms. Alexander's question

"What if the mightiest word is love?"

with a yes!

"Love beyond marital, filial, national,
love that casts a widening pool of light,
love with no need to pre-empt grievance."

We make the mightiest word love and retire money, power and fear.

I so hopefully feel ready to try.

Creatures of Light

2008-12-30T21:25:00.000-08:00

"Fragile, vulnerable, creatures of light."

This is what we are, my preacher friend tells me.

I am reminded of this every day.

Fragile.
Today the news that a dear friend has cancer.
Another dear friend with cancer.
My heart is in my throat and I feel like I cannot get a full breath.

Vulnerable.
A friend falls on the icy snowy walkway and breaks her foot.
Her dear husband, (they are both in their 70's) gets the flu in the midst of caring for her. We can break--and we do.

Creatures of light.
My sweet grandson laughing--it could break your heart how bright his light shines.

Fragile
Vulnerable
Creatures of light

Here's a poem, In the Produce Aisle by Kirsten Dierking, that sweetly expresses our finite and delicate predicament.

The Coming of Love, The Coming of Light

2008-12-17T08:01:00.000-08:00

Here we are. The Winter Solstice is Sunday and Christmas Eve a week away--for me this is the season of our longing. Longing for light and for something that will give us hope.

Mark Strand, an exceedingly secular poet, wrote a fine short poem The Coming of Light that tidily and succinctly spells out our longing and the miracle of some kind of redemption and grace.

It is what I need--even this late.

The Coming Of Light

Love Enough

2008-12-15T19:33:00.000-08:00

What about being the change you want to see in the world?

With my ever erratic and unpredictable hormonal fluctuations I feel like a constant complainer. Nothing is ever good enough. Dinners out are so-so, friends and family are failing me, my partner could not possibly live up to the standard I've set, the house is never clean enough, our political leaders are not progressive enough...oh the list of my dissatisfaction goes on and on and on.

"And it goes on and on and on and on and on..."as Michael Franti sings, for a thousand years, for a thousand years I say..."

He's singing about our great collective skill of finger-pointing and chronic dissatisfaction.

"We want freedom of speech
But we all talking at the same time
We say we want peace
but nobody wants to change their own mind

Everybody wants to live the life of kings and queens
But nobody wants to stay and plow the fields
Everybody wants to tell their neighbors how to live
But nobody wants to listen to how they feel"

"And it goes on and on and on and on and on..."

It is time to be the change you want to see in the world.

He sings "All you got to do is love enough, yeah, love enough, yeah, love and could you love some more?..."

Love enough, just enough, to stop complaining. Just enough to stop telling your neighbor, or your husband, or your wife, or your child or your coworker how to live and be. Just enough to listen. Just enough to see with open eyes and with a bigger heart.

I guess I'm getting started early on my New Year's resolutions.
Love enough.
Maybe I only need one this year.