Tuesday, August 17, 2021

Show Me Beautiful

Show me beautiful.
Find something good.
Peel back the cover of what has it hidden beneath, and hold it in your hands.
Let it shine.
Let it speak without words.
Raise it to the sky. (Like in The Lion King)
Give thanks for this beauty.
Dance around it.  Or lift your voice in song and celebrate it.
Whatever is lovely, whatever is pure, whatever is noble, find it and rest your thoughts upon it.
I know that it's there. 
So do you...really.
He made so much of it, there is truly no scarcity.
Unfortunately, nothing seems to connect our thoughts with another person like complaint and criticism.
Reject that process.  
Turn your heel against it and walk away.
Instead...
Show me beautiful.
Find something good.
Unearth it.
Expose it.
Reveal it.
Revel in it.
Acknowledge the presence and perseverance of all that deserves praise and joy.
This vessel, this person, who has shown us the possible amidst the mundane.
They are worthy.
They are a trumpet of peace and hope among so many, thorny and bleak days.
Lifting our eyes.
Pushing our shoulders back, and our chin up.
Elevating even our minds.
Be. Just. Like. That.
Take "beautiful" by the right hand and join another that is lost with your left.
Make it a movement. 
Make it your cry.
Make it your anthem.
This is our season.  
This is our lifetime.
This is our chance.
We get no other.
So, finally...
Show me beautiful.
Find something good.
Be the beginning, the middle and carry it to the end.
Choose.
Now.
Today.
Do...not...wait.
Someone else needs this more than you do.


Tuesday, August 3, 2021

Still In The Making

In your eyes...
An old man,  young man,  story of a child
A memory, a mystery, and a dream that may be.
On a path, on the road, climbing on a tree.
Weathered, wanting, reaching to be free
Oh how I wish my eyes were open
                                 to all that yours can see.


Won't You send a spark, send a flame, send me fire
Burning through, breaking through the shadow and the mire
Raising up, rising up 'til filthy rags, made new
and I have disappeared, deep inside... the refining fire....of You



Your thoughts...
Not like mine; holding onto smoke
Looking at the past, praying for that day
Unfolding like a letter, wondering what to say
Stumbling in fetters; my feet made of clay
But yours, from the heavens to the sidewalk
                                      * Emily's feathers in the fray                      

Your heart... 
A shield from darkness; shelter from the cold
Even then, even when, all the walls are shaking
Holds it all,  holding mine even while it's breaking
Not alone... in the dark, forgotten son forsaken...but
A fortress, and a tower, the place I run
                                                to life, still in the making

Won't You send a spark, send a flame, send me fire
Burning through, breaking through the shadow and the mire
Raising up, rising up 'til filthy rags, made new
and I have disappeared, deep inside... the refining fire....of You

* "Hope is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul - 
And sings the tunes without the words - 
And never stops - at all." - Emily Dickinson