have you sung songs today?
SING, WORLD, SING!
Break me open, Life
Shatter my remaining defences against You
You placed magnificence at the heart of my despair
You sowed volcanic strength into my vulnerability
Even my doubt vibrated with courage
“Leave the familiar
With no hope of return”?
Of course!
I am not afraid, I was never afraid!
I once walked a familiar path of self-construction
I now walk a path of grace and destruction
Of weeping at birdsong and telling the truth
I will never turn back!
– Jeff Foster
God has not forgotten you,
lost track of you in this vast, cluttered universe,
lost interest with so many other people.
God is speaking to you,
in the most invisible whisper,
the faintest handwriting,
and sometimes, like a mother with a child inside her,
no message gets through,
nothing in the silence but God herself.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
There was that day of the silent scream inside,
‘God I need you to speak to me today….Pleeeeeese’
But there was nothing in answer
except the poem
from my special God-friend at Unfolding Light…
reminding me to trust the silence…
I was at the door knocking loudly, yet there was nothing –
Weeds and locked doors filled my morning
The door of The Open Door Chapel was not
It was a day of deserted desert wandering
Until I drove East, able to read all the signs, full circle
as the sun set and the sky became a love letter
written especially for me and mine
crazy beautiful stuff surrounding us on all sides
and the magic of life filled me to the brim with wonder once again
waited on that slow train, reminding me to take a breathe…and another…
I spoke to God at 9:06 pm and there was great celebration in those 33 minutes
of catching up and keeping faith
I went to bed full
sliver of moon having slid right into my heart slot
quenching the last of my desperate desire
to feel you present with me now
like a quarter sliding into the juke box
my song began again
knowing
It’s Alright
Morning has Broken
Everything’s Gonna Be Alright,
Rock-a-bye,
Rock-a-bye
🌝
Amy Lloyd
May Perpetual Light Shine by Patricia Spears Jones
🔆
We have encountered storms
Perfect in their drench and wreck
Each of us bears an ornament of grief
A ring, a notebook, a ticket torn, scar
It is how humans know their kind—
What is known as love, what can become
the heart’s food stored away for some future
Famine
Love remains a jewel in the hand, guarded
Shared fragments of earth & air drift & despair.
We ponder what patterns matter other than moons and tides:
musical beats—rumba or waltz or cha cha cha cosmic waves like batons furiously twirling
colors proclaiming sparkle of darkness
as those we love begin to delight
in the stars embracing
life: acoustic & amplified 