You Are My Shade

You are my shade when the sun beats down with tropic heat, when its beams creep in like crafty spies, when it hides its face but penetrates. You are my shade. You are my shadewhen the enemy blasts with full attack,when he sneaks in wearing a new costume,when he comes behind me to whisper lies.YouContinue reading “You Are My Shade”

Prayer to the Shepherd

I walk beside a river and you hold my hand as we exult in beauty. When the sky turns gray with a storm rolling in you shelter me from pellets of ice, rough winds,sky fire, or even justa cold wet downpour.Next comes a hilly incline,tiring my calf muscleseven though this is onlyslightly draining. It’s training.ButContinue reading “Prayer to the Shepherd”

Punctuating the Separations

I greet distance once again, geographic separation that clips my best strong heart connections, separates close friends, my loved ones. The threads of tendernesstrail tears over continentsand disappear intothe salt of seas.“Goodbye!” is the wordthat stabs me, punctuation tothe phrases of my lifeeven while it sends my love after a heart.Delight moves throughshared sequences(some catapultedContinue reading “Punctuating the Separations”

He is at Work

God stretches out his arm, his right hand goes to work, and what was meant for tragedy is tweaked and tuned to good. We cannot see ahead, we don’t know when or how a dangerous trap’s been set in place to frustrate, crush or kill, But since he holds the worldsecurely in his palms,he knows!Continue reading “He is at Work”

Deep Calling Deep

I keep to shallows. You are the deep that tugs my feet from under me, blasts ears with fury, floods each orifice until I’m swept away, my deep imploded to a black hole, resistance convoluted to a vacuum. Ravished, I find your waves and breakerstender with thetropic warmthof a trillion suns,millenia of moon tides.You areepicContinue reading “Deep Calling Deep”

Radical Change After Pentecost

Extraordinary hyper-power pulsates inside this fragile jar. Its fried glass, splintered to a mosaic of prisms, splits the beams to violet, green and red (shocked with gold) and casts pictures through the night onto dark walls: images of glory, stained glass come alive and radiating metaphors: a king bathing slaves’ feetwhile a woman’s hairwipes hisContinue reading “Radical Change After Pentecost”

The Red of Love

Love—deep red love— came struggling through the pressure of the birth canal and landed safe in loving handsthat washed away the bloodand held him close.They did not know, not yet,that Love’s own bloodwould someday spurtfrom lashes to his back,from nails plunged straightthrough his own hands,and through his feet—blood of Life and supreme Lovethat would bringContinue reading “The Red of Love”

Open Home, Open Heart

The travelers walked in the front door, hot and dusty after hours on dirt roads. Mom always found room at the table, one built for her by Dad, big enough to welcome at least a dozen guests. She added another vegetable, salad, bread—done! There was always enough.Then, grown up, it was my turn.I learned toContinue reading “Open Home, Open Heart”

Our One Hope

This is not what I thought it would be, a quiet safe place with time to rest and peace my constant cup of tea. Instead I toss and turn, my heart churning with yearning for that final resolution of these conflicts,a revolution that turns the worldupside-down, filtering out the eviland cleansing the cup so itContinue reading “Our One Hope”

Morning Thank-yous

Thank you for green filaments waving in the breeze on this hot day, for silver sunlight filtered through gray overcast skies, for the solid round edges of mangoes still ripening, hanging pregnantly from bowed branches,and for those that have turned to gold and fallen to thirsty earth to make new wine and maybe children.Thank youContinue reading “Morning Thank-yous”