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Phone Calls with my Sister

Voices in double-dutch synchronicity

opening pathways to our soul’s longings.

Sharing laughter prompted by southern idioms from days past;

“You so hard headed”.

Talking…navigating our way out of the woods of invisibility.

Conversation conecting the journey of aging bodies.

Charting our course together,

carefully following the path of renewal

while cautioning each other..

“Watch out”

You dont’ want to stumble over the rocks of youth’s design

which always leaves your knees a bloody mess of

“trying to hard”.

Who do you tell about it?

Knees that hurt

eyes going dim

hair thinning

skin sagging

friends passing

…and all the lessons learned.

Your sister, on a late night phone call

providing a bridge and giving voice to your inner most self.

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A Prayer for PEACE

Edwin Starr in 1970 shouts “War – Uggh..what is it good for? Absolutely nothing!

Yet there is war raging

In Ukraine…in the hood…..in the streets..

War behind closed doors -where safety and peace should reside.

Nikki Giovanni wrote about it..

“In the name of peace, they waged a war – Ain’t they got no shame!”

James Cleveland sang looking toward heaven…

“… the wind and the waves obey God’s will…Peace BE Still..”

John Lennon pleaded..

“..all we are saying is give Peace a chance!”

Holy One,

How do I keep the intention of peace before me, when it seems a distant and naive notion?

Help me to be still, so I can feel that

“Peace that passes all understanding”.

Peace – in a gentle breeze

Peace- through a warm smile

Peace – through a task well done

Peace – knowing trouble won’t last always

Help me to be centered in the sacred

So I may have PEACE

So I may embody PEACE

Help me to respond from a place of peace, and not get caught up in the chaos and conflict around me…

For…”the tempest is ranging’ and at times it feels like we are on the verge of perishing.

Help me connect to that sacred transformative center that whispers in my ear

” Peace Be Still”

that can provide me with both calm and courage. – Amen.

_{Written after 2021 being the deadliest year in Chicago in 25 years,}

797 people slain, and.._{on the 9th day of the war in Ukraine} _

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The Blessing of Friends

Photo by Anna Tukhfatullina Food Photographer/Stylist on Pexels.com

In this season of thanksgiving, I thank God for the blessing of friendships,

especially those that have stood the test of time.

I thank the vibrations of kinship for connecting me with those who share my sycopated memory.

I thank God for mew frends that broaden my specturm of experience and understanding,

Taking my soul deeper while lightening my load.

I thank God for those voices that

Listen to me

Pray with me

and LAUGH!

What a treasure of blessings!

Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: “What! You too, I thought I was the only one”
C. S. Lewis

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Nature doesn’t apologize for its seasons…

My prayer for today is that the Divine Force will help me appreciate each season on this life .
I embrace the beauty of my spring blossoms: births and new beginning.
I rejoice in the harvest of my autum: gathering the fruits from the seeds I have planted.
Help me to awaken to what dlights are offered in the cold barren times
-when life  lies underneath the surface.
Help me to understnd the gifts and lessons of each season of my life.
Open me to the sacred wisdom of living, seeding, growing, dying, and relase.

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Who is Christ to me?

The mind of Christ:

tradition shattering

thought provoking

radical

unafraid

loving what is true

loving what is just.

Knowing the timeless boundless sacred.

What an example to follow.

To be both tender, fearless, both (as Rev. Marilyn Pagan Banks would say)

“Hood & Holy”.

It is what the world still needs.

It is what I seek to follow..

With God’s help

I pray I have the heart, the guidance, the discipline, and the faith

to be that kind of believer

engaging in such needed work

Thinking, moving outside of the boxes of tradition distorted.

Outside the tradition of cultural restraints that limit life so we can move

inside the will of God

Understanding that being misunderstood is part of the job

…And having the resolve to continue to carry on.

–

Photo by RODNAE Productions on Pexels.com

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A prayer for Parents

Holy One,

This day, I offer a prayer for those who

are struggling with their children.

Parents struggling to understand them

…As they themselves struggle to be understood.

I pray for parents struggling to provide and protect with little or no resources.

I pray for parents who bear the blows of hurt and abandonment,

so their children can have peace.

I pray for parents who can’t show love

because no one loved them.

I pray for families torn apart by open wounds that fester year after year.

Today I pray for families:

May they know love and peace when they behold each other

May they have strength and grace to accept …

Sometimes..the best you can do

is love with a long handled spoon-

from a distance – to minimize the hurt.

I pray hearts can heal

I pray attitudes can change

with help from the Holy One. Amen.

Photo by August de Richelieu on Pexels.com

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Seasoned Queens

(This is a communal poem for the boomers)

I consider myself a classic

Built in another era for a luxurious ride

seat comfy and wide

frame sturdy and grand

curves in every line.

When on the road,

restored and gleaming

that throwback ol’ skool esthetic

makes people smile, eyes twinkling.

wondering how I made it this far on so little.

I am a classic, not tailored to today’s speed and tech

But, I can roll with the best of them yet.

I am a classic.

Sustained over the years with ingenuity home grown

and a combination of alley mechanic genius, spit, and nail polish…

And love for what memories I hold

Love for our yesterdays

Love for style that never fades.

Yes, I am a classic

I defy that singular standard of compact, sleek, straight haired beauty.

I defy the construct that youth is the only measure of relevance.

I am a classic

and my worth increases independent of demand

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Open our Eyes

“…then their eyes were opened….and they recognized him…” Luke 24:30-32

It is often hard to see other people.

We see their status….or lack of it.

We see the outer shell.

But, what does it take to open our eyes and see another person’s humanity?

How much have we missed, not being able to see other people as we journey through life?

No wonder they didn’t recognize Jesus!

I wonder what was said? Or was it something in his glance as he looked at them intently, that touched their hearts so deeply that their eyes were able to see what was below the surface?

My prayer: Lord, open our eyes that we may see”

I gave him up for Lent….

40 Days and 40 Nights…

He was a lover

A lover of music

A lover of his culture

A lover of photography

And….a lover of women.

It was this last passion – his love for women

that is where he was most magical and the most destructive

Because, since he felt abandoned by love as a boy

he didn’t trust it’s embrace

…And when it did snag his sleeve briefly,

He savored the touch

only to pull away.

Until the day

his body began to fail him,

and life in its fourth quarter

began longing for that personal touch

he had run from his entire life.

I was always near.

It was an Issac Hayes “hot buttered soul” kind of love,

Seven times I left

Seven times I came back.

But this time

40 days of intentional denial

Interrupted the longing,

Interrupted the pattern ,

And set me free.

An Advent prayer- While we wait

“Still your children wander homeless

Still the hungry cry for bread

Still the captive longs for freedome

Still in grief we mourn the dead..”
Albert Baxly (Hymn: Lord, whose love through humble service)

Lord, It is hard to believe that

Hope is waiting to be born.

It is hard to believe that

goodness will prevail when there is war, and homelessness, and poverty and evil run amok.

It is hard to believe in love when shots take the lives of innocents every single day.

Help me Holy One,

To hold fast to the ideal…

To have real faith (“believing in spite of the evidence…)

And then watching the spirit of my belief change what is evident.

Help me believe in kindess is a cruel world.

Help me beleive in truth in a time that exalts lies.

Help me to believe that transformation is possible.

Help me to embrace the gift of waiting for your in-breaking.

Amen.

What is haunting YOU?

This halloween, ask yourself..”What is haunting you?”

Is it blinking devices?

Is it al the shoulda’, coulda’, woulda’s?

A brief haunting thought…

Once there was a woman who was haunted by the urgings of her spirit;

The spirit of creaivity denied

The spirit of ancestral defiance she carried

but buried.

The spirit of union with the universe she consumed

with the fork of convience.

These urgings could not be buried,

although she thought they were dead..

…And so the hauntings came.

Some were whispers to act from her hidden parts.

The hauntings came

Some filling her room with cold winds

blowing in arresting carresses from unseen hands.

The voices, the sleepness nights became so frequent

She had to address the spirits.

She needed to do the unfinished thing.

She needed to speak the hidden works

She needed to go down the dark path

So she could free herself and them.

October 30, 2022

“Give Us This Day”

Lord, you taught me to pray ” Give Us This Day…”

But…Because we are moving in such a state of

businesses…

Such a state of
“I have-to-do”ness

Such a state of but ” I should-ness”,

That in our preoccupation we ask for what has already been given..

a percious moment
a new day
the present

We ask, because we don’t reealize what is already ours:

This very moment!

Not who we were back then

Not who we hope to become

Not even what we have overcome.

It is already ours:

This moment to breathe

This moment to be still

This Day!

The word says “Be Still And Know I am God”

But the world demands my movement

my production

my constant animation.

The world of

You could be more

You could do more

You should have more.

But Holy time halts us.

In the stilness –

I AM ENOUGH

No striving, nothing to prove.

May we remind ourselves to honor this day, and claim this gift of now.

May the Creator help me find a bit of stillness each day to honor all that is sacred.

Amen.

Thought for the week #3

Your wounds are not about telling your story over and over again.

It is about “WOW”..wounds go deep…I must never wound another human in that way…It is about…can my story help heal their story?”
Carolyn Myss

All the woulda’

Coulda’

Shoulda’s

All the “If only I had…

“If only I had known…

“ If only I had done this or that..”

All the regrets that lie stacked in a corner

As a reminder

Of my faults, my mistakes, my misdeeds.

Lord,

Help me to get the lessons from those experiences

Help me to accept that that was the best I could do at that time

Help me -(In the words of Nikki Giovanni) know

“There are so many new mistakes that can be made

…it shouldn’t be necessary to repeat the old ones”

Help me feel in my spirit, that every failure does/ and has moved me closer to success.

Help me claim the healing power of testimony.

With your help, I pray. Amen.