Living Doxology

Living Doxology

Why let another day pass as the same,
sky as crystallized blue, ground the color of humus--
and not simply rejoice?!

I am living each day with a
newfound independence--
trading correctness for mindful gestures--
all of which means, at this very moment,
that I am loved by something/by Someone
so much bigger than I am.

Why imagine? Imagine why
we continue this cycle of living
that can too easily feel
clunky like charcoal at the bottom
of a shoe, resisting light:
a dialogue with Sisyphus' strategician.

I'd like to create for myself
a mechanism in which to remember Spirit,
motion mightily like tenderness,
like living life under a soft cotton blanket
and opening out the edges to embrace the world--
not afraid of cold feet.
Spend an hour smelling cinnamon;
another one relishing the taste of water.
Listen to the scratching sound of pen against paper.

I will steep my life for awhile in joy,
savor the seasons.
Live Doxology in Laughter:
This is my work.
This is my labor.

A poem written 12/3/2009 by Elizabeth G. Campbell

Peace

Sometimes we don't know why life offers us what it does or why we make the choices that we do... But I don't believe that it is mere impulse or choice--- Sometimes the path set before us, I believe, God leads us on... And I won't explain this theologically here or try to describe in many logical ways or words here... I think it is just something we know... and if I could describe it in any way, it would be with one word: peace.

I am grateful

I am grateful for the one that I love, who reminds me that forgiveness is real and also that I can truly be myself! I am living into this grace.

A Prayer

Inevitable. Baby-steps. Wondering. Imagining: All leading towards a fear of regret? God, how can the choices in our lives fill us with a sense of life and wonder, so that we can walk in peace? How can we hold each other during our choice-making, comforting and catalyzing... so that we dare to make the choices that bring out our deepest, truest truth?

These words have been floating in the back of my mind over the last few days, as I continue to find myself awash in choice-making and wondering which way to turn. I am writing a theological reflection about conflict as quotidian and therein I establish this point: That conflict is not something to be feared as it is often part of the process towards something greater and may, in fact, enable us to reach a more prayerful and communal goal or hope?

This day I ponder the choices of the week and I wonder how I can continue to live life as I always dreamed... God, in your grace.

Thinking about Lilies

Mary Oliver has a lovely poem in which she uses this phrase, thinking about lilies, and yet that is not why I am writing this post. I write this post instead to announce a new part of my blog called "Stories: Lil Epiphanies." Here will be a place where I will work on nurturing and crafting little epiphanies in process, stories that are in the midst of creation. Suffice it to say, this blog author has been inspired to do something that she should have began awhile ago... Amen.

Life Exploring

I am at the pinnacle of something important, breathing words of reverence, of honesty, of self-care and challenge. I long to enter the song of soulfulness and there reveal the timbre of the drone, playing underneath it all...

Wonder

I am struck by the wonder of raw emotion-- when we uncover deep truth in the performance of rite. Sitting as a participant and member at Erin's wedding today, I was reminded of this very fact: of the gentle, marvelous beauty of love.... of knowing another person so deeply that you are willing to let your soul be known... In all the many defenses that we have in this society--- resorting to the games of busyness, blame, and bureaucacy-- still there remains, in spite of the noise and voices offering otherwise, the deep knowingness that all one truly desires is to be loved. OH, to feel such love! Wonder.