Namaste'

 

Namaste’

My Buddhist friends,

say with folded hands.

“The Divine Spark in me

Bows to the Divine Spark in you.”

Sometimes,

seeing that Spark

changes everything.

What if every Mobile Crisis Call

began with

“The Image of God in me,

Greets the Image of God in you.”

Even if just said quietly;

Breathing in,

Breathing out.

How much would it change

what happens on the call?

Why should the Buddhists

have all the fun?

LENTEN REFLECTION ON A MOBILE CRISIS CALL

 

I have watched families

Crushed before the swinging beam

heavy and wooden

of accusation

That came from the mouth of one

Denying the beam in their own eye

As they point out the faults

Of those trying to help them.

It is not just that they cannot see the mote

in another's eye

It's that every time they turn their head

This plank takes out

Someone else they used to love.

And so for Lent

I'm giving up

Pointing at the bit of trash in your eye

and denying the wooden beam

in my own.

*It has been suggested that I put in a note to explain that I do a lot of family work in crisis situations. I often work with a Mobile Crisis Team as well.  The culmination of some of that work resulted in this poem 

 

For A Girl Who May Have Never Given Us Her Real Name

 

March 10, 2022

I moved her file on the computer

from active

to closed

And scratched her name

off my to do list.

Gone

Vanished

How easy to erase

the name of a trafficked

mentally ill

lost

Hispanic girl.

Did the man who stabbed her

and left her dead

in a DC alley

scratch her off his list?

Pimp?

John?

pissed off random guy with a knife?

How easily these broken ones are erased

Save in the Heart/Mind of God.

Some days I believe that.

Some days I wonder if it matters.

 

-for PD

 

For Love Of Leaning

 She comes and leans on me, and I bury my fingers in her fur                                                                       Her lean deepens and she looks up at me with the contentment of satisfied longing                                  She still eats things she shouldn't,                                                                                                              And obedience isn't always her strong suit                                                                                                    I have called her to me,                                                                                                                                  only to have me look as though to say                                                                                                          I am not done with what I want, I'll be there when I'm ready                                                                      But I have also called her name                                                                                                                      to have her spin on a dime and dash to me                                                                                                    as though I am the only thing in her world                                                                                                    I think of this as she leans.                                                                                                                        How like her I am with You my God                                                                                                        fickle in my obedience                                                                                                                                  all too often reckless in my behavior.                                                                                                            Let me never lose my longing to lean into Your love for me                                                                        Let me never stop craving the intimacy of Your touch                                                                                  I have learned new meaning from the gift that is Oreo                                                                                A richer sense of the words to the old hymn:                                                                                        What a fellowship, what a joy divine                                                                                                Leaning on the everlasting arms                                                                                                            What a fellowship, what a peace is mine                                                                                          Leaning on the everlasting arms

Tangle Your fingers in my fur Lord                                                                                                          And let me lean on You forever

Oreo At One Year

We've been together

slightly over a year

She still eats the remote

If it's left in reach

But she walks beside me

so much better now

and responds to my voice

with greater regularity

Sometimes the first time I tell her

She also plays

And hikes

And snuggles

And communicates her love.

I love her back

Not because she's perfect,

or even because she's obedient 

(truthfully that's a crapshoot on some days)

But because she's Oreo

And we are bonded together

Do I think that Jesus loves me

any less?

That He only wants to talk to me

When I am good?

That He only wants to play fetch

When I do it His way

That if I ate the remote

that day

He will not rub my stomach

when I push His arm

and roll on my back?

Am I a better doggy daddy

than Jesus?

Oreo reminds me

God did not create me

for obedience,

but for relationship.

Obedience is a means to that end

Not the end itself

God did not make me

So that I could learn tricks.

We play together

because it is a joy

Oreo's been with me a

little over a year

If God knew me

forming in my mother's womb

We've been together

quite a bit longer.

And both of us

Oreo and I

Are still figuring out

that we are loved

Whether we've

eaten a remote

Or pushed our head 

under our Masters hand

Benediction For Easter 2021

 

To One who knows each sparrow's fall,

And feels each bullet's thud;

Who cries for grief at graves

And for joy at births;

To the God who put on flesh;

Partied with sinners

Died at the hands of torture,

And when He rose from the dead

emptied hell for the first,

but not the last time.

THIS is the Risen Christ we praise.

To THIS God be praise given forever,

This redefined majesty be ever before our eyes.

Let the Kingdom He promised come quickly,

Transform this world completely,

And continue forever.

AMEN

Psalm For A Holy Saturday

Come on this Holy Saturday                                                                                                                          When it feels all hope is gone

Sit by the tomb

Stare at the stone and weep

Weep, but do not flee this moment.

Stay

Sit by the tomb, but not alone

Sit with all the broken, weary ones

Who, like you, wonder if the morning

will ever come

Til

Beneath your feet

Can you feel it

The tiniest quivering rumble of earth

Strain your ears

Can you hear the distant voice singing

Faintly

Holy, Holy, Holy

Even in the depths of hell.

The gates there have burst open  as they will again.