Decorate your life with hope

Shine its light on all

the dark emptiness

where gloom and apathy dwell

Let its glow wash over

downtrodden dreams

making them shimmer with expectation

Scatter its sparkling promise

through your day

And watch as God's grace

Dawns on the world

Did they know what they asked

When they woke you that day

Fear brought them to the edge

[Where?

There, when the helpless fear

claws icily at your heart]

There, when ignorance and intolerance

turn stone faced to your pain.

There, in your small daughter's wisdom

and your son's gentle smil

There, in the faces of friends

your unbidden tears, warmth of a hug

There, in the love you give

and receive

There, in the small voice whispering

you must, you can, go on

There, in the delicate veins of a leaf

moon bright in the cloud edged darkness

There, in words

I woke this morning in a muted darkness like a deep blues ballad.  As morning rose in the east the sky turned to the clear white notes of a solo jazz guitar. 

Lest We Forget to Remember

How can we remember?

That long time ago

decades before our birth

We only see the grainy, greyed images

of soldiers marching, fighting, dying

and walking skeletons

of POW's and the Final Solution

A mushroom cloud

shocking the world into uneasy peace

But it has not ended

Ongoing battles erupt on our streets

Violence confronts us

 CNN live minute by minute

So we mute the sound

detach from the images

tune out the pain

Have you ever been hungry?

No, not the craving for

chocolate or chips

But the stomach roiling,

noisy gut emptiness that comes

from hours and days

without food

your stomach full

of pain

your body shivering, cold

and then alone, you are left with

dull ache, cloudy mind, desolate heart

because a small number have it all

and there are no leftovers for the rest

Have you ever craved justice?

so that each has not

more and more

but just enough

so all are fed

in body

in spirit

Based on John 20...

...

The other day the conversation turned to the topic of Christmas and someone asked me if I was ready for Christmas. I replied that I wasn't. There were still gifts to buy, cards that I was making...