Photo by Pixabay
I don’t know what you found after our childhood
Did love transform your dreams or did you have to choose?
Do we really know between the longing and the real?
I think of you often and am warmed by your gentle smile.
I hope you found a girl and some laughter.
A place to warm your heart through dark cold disaster.
Life is but a song we sing to touch others
An artist and a poet, a sister and a brother, a moment in the sun together
Photo by Artem Bali
It doesn’t really matter when
I pull back the curtains and see you again
It will be two-sided loving
like it’s always been
Come on in my lover and friend
There is a wonderful wildness in a true loves heart
once it starts the rhythm won’t stop
do you feel it baby,
do you still feel it too
When I pull back the curtains and come visit you?
He said, “I get my meanness from the gutter and I get my kindness from God.” I sat down under the bridge with him and I said, “I think I could say the same.” He looked at me square in the eyes and I could see he was surprised by my response. He said, “You don’t look like you know much about the gutter.”
I smiled and said “looks can be deceiving don’t ya know?” Then he laughed. The sound of his laughter was one that made me smile. His laughter was like a nine month old baby’s belly laugh. The kind of laughter where nothing is held back and a sweetness of joy rings from it. I told him I had not laughed like that in ages and he said, “Oh you can only laugh like that when Fury and Thunder have cracked your soul and all the dark places have been opened up and cleaned out and all the pieces are strewn about and you cannot put them back together by yourself. I call it reconcilable purity. This laughter only occurs when you have lost your life to save it and when you were first but now you are last…”
I sat there in sober silence but something inside of me begin to tremble. “Who are you?” I whispered. He said, “I am just an old man who has been given a new heart and all day long I just like to go around and give my heart and life away to whoever might need it for a minute or two so that they can go about their day with some pure laughter…” The gorged veined, brown spotted hands palmed my face and the old man looked me in the eye and he said, “Go and be, not do. Go laugh and cry. Go and give your life away for someone else and you will see. You will laugh the laugh of “reconcilable purity.”
Photo by Afta Putta Gunawan
I always tried to save the Lost Boy…
I could pick Him out in a crowd
His eyes look sad as if they wanted to be found
He is hurt deep inside but never makes a sound…
I always tried to save the Lost Boy…
he will never dance to someone else’s tune
he talks tough to his friends and howls at the moon
he takes care of others and will grow up too soon…
Oh the Lost Boys are blue, some are bound to lose
I pray to The One who can right all wrongs to sing His song
and fill the boy with sweet light and soul
because I know now I cannot save The Lost Boys…
Photo by Chevanon Photography
I suppose all writer’s like to sit and observe people. I am sure they must. I do this without even realizing it, even when I don’t want to.
I was sitting in a cafe yesterday for instance, in a nice part of North Dallas and four teenage girls came in…the following is what I observed and where my mind went…
The perfect girl, I will call her #1. She is tall. She has on designer shirt and shorts with the perfect little wedge shoes and subtle but elegant jewelry. Her hair is smooth and perfect and naturally deep auburn. Her sunglasses are effortlessly perched on top of her head. She is the Alpha Female, the leader, the talker. The others follow her but more importantly they trust her implicitly…
Girl #2 is so close to being an Alpha she has staked out being the #2 girl with authority. She is willing to follow the Alpha as long as the other two girls acknowledge that she is #2. She knows she isn’t as pretty or perfect but she is striking and smart, articulate and unafraid.
#3 is Happy. She is happy to be here. She is smiley and bubbly and very pretty without knowing it. She is easy going so she can never be an Alpha Female and she is okay with that. She knows her place and she knows she is just as smart and articulate as her friends but she knows “the art of waiting…”
#4 is the youngest in the pack. She is beautiful and smart but insecure. Her first words were “I didn’t wear my sunglasses.” She is afraid to step out and speak her mind yet because she is a little scared the others will make fun of her. For now, at this stage in her life, she is a follower but has every intention of overcoming her doubts and become the Alpha Female one day herself. She is the one who interacts the most with #1 because she is learning and soaking in observations. The teacher and the student…
I do not believe that women in the American culture have ever been taught or given the okay to move in packs or accept they are part of a marvelous tribe. Most of us bear the good and bad of life in a private place. We may have one friend or two we can tell most things too but it is rare that we would ever run a joint household as they did in the ancient days…The statement “it takes a village” is not true in the America that I see. An American woman is expected to do it all and do it on her own and we all can see how well that has worked out.
I digress…so there they were, four girls, just eating, laughing, talking…they are probably nothing like what I observed…it is crazy right? I know.
Photo by Alem Sánchez
As I prepare my heart during Lent season heading toward the Holy day of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ I keep coming back to the thought of The One in whom I put my trust.
All of us “trust” something or someone, as as a result, we worship the very thing we are trusting.
Dr. Hud McWilliams says, “for a relationship to be authentic, one must realize that a choice has to be unencumbered by manipulation.” (no fear, no rules, and no behavior that merits you favor). “
Looking back on my youth I have come to realize many of my relationships had an element of manipulation or my own agenda in them but now I see that Jesus never manipulated people to engage with or follow him.
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2
God gives us the ability to openly choose Him through Jesus Christ. No manipulation, no winning a lotto, no position of prosperity or health. So, I remain humbly astounded that my relationship with God can be truly free and without manipulation…
Photo by Garon Piceli
I lie down under the burden
of the courage that I lack
For you to see the sin in me
cannot be taken back
It is my greatest fear at times
you might finally know
The dark and filth I tasted once
I never want to show
Exposure of who I really am
could it drive your love away?
After all you’re only human
dare I hope that you would stay?
The truth of exposure that I fear
is a mystery not of loss
But a debt that is fully paid
willingly hung upon a Cross
Photo by Fabio Gasperoni
Sunshine in my window I heard the screen door slam
The more I lose the more I win guess it’s just the way I am
Leaving the rain behind me living a brand new way
Taking the view I’m given being thankful every day
Swept the illusions all away cobweb’s about what is true
I cleaned out the hidden places guess that’s just what I had to do
Spring rains clears the skies I close my eyes to pray
There is still so much to know guess that’s just my way
Leaving the rain behind me living a brand new way
Taking the view I’m given thanking God every day
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
All her colors run together on the floor…
she has been here so many times before
She is sure this time they will stone her
Condemnation beats in her heart and her soul is torn…
His gentle words were more than she had hoped for…
He bent down in the dirt and wrote a word
He spoke gently lifting her face to see Heaven
“No one here can condemn you anymore…”
All the colors of New life swirled around her at once
Blood red drops in the dirt became white as snow
the blue of the sky filled with angels singing “gloria! ”
He said, ” your sins are forgiven now you are whole… “
Photo by Pixabay
Blue crystal deepest ocean
Hot sun high in the sky
The devil came to Cuba
Had to run or die
You came seeking refuge
The way so unclear
Fighting hard for freedom
You let me see the years
We are old and wise now
We cannot count the “ifs”
I still hear your Latin song
And taste Cuba on my lips
Jill Autrey Dorman 