April 22: Caught Out In The Rain

Caught Out in the Rain

So what do you expect

With an attitude so cynical?

Did you think you would connect,

With your reasoning so clinical?

You’re certainly intelligent,

And I know that you’re well-read,

But no one thinks you’re heaven-sent

When you’re living in your head!

So you walked out of the meeting.

What’s your reason to complain?

You didn’t take a beating.

You’re just caught out in the rain.

You think the wording matters,

But the rain’s pitter-patter

Says your deal’s just been scattered.

You just can’t keep holding on!

You got to go with the flow.

You got to live what you know.

Where you’re sent, you must go:

But - please try to get along!

You don’t know your addictions,

And you’re striking your very best pose:

Showing forth all your convictions,

And hiding your list of woes!

You’re not feeling much enjoyment,

Where’s the friends you’d like to meet?

You feel chained to your employment

While you try to find your feet.

You recite what you believe in,

While you melt your candy cane,

‘Cause you get to the party when it’s time to leave!

You’re just caught out in the rain.

You think their judgments matter,

But the rain’s pitter-patter

Says everybody’s scattered,

And just trying to hold on!

You can’t fight with the flow.

You got to live what you know.

Where you’re sent, you must go:

But then, you’ve got to be strong!

I wish someone had called me aside,

And said, “Hey what you heading for?

I know I was living in too much pride

To knock on anyone’s door.

Always busy, but disengaged

In free-floating imagination,

Drowning in self-pity and rage;

Seeking solace in stimulation:

False beginnings and dead-end roads:

But there’s always another train!

When the story’s becomes too heavy a load.

You got to find your way out of the rain!

All that history matters!

But the rain’s pitter-patter

Says those seeds have been scattered.

And now you’ve just got to go on!

While you live, you can grow.

There’s still so much to know!

For your Love, you must go -

While it lasts, and before it’s all gone!

April 21: One Response To A Bleeding Heart

One Response To A Bleeding Heart

Don’t give me your generalizations

About life on the street being hell.

The outcasts of civilization

All have their own story to tell.

But reveal to me your vision

From the things you’ve heard and seen.

What’s your involvement?  What’s your position?

What do you think it means

To be a vagrant Jesus

And to be a working Christ,

Where things of “the world” don’t please us,

Nor a useless sacrifice?

We try to meet some simple needs

Where no one else may care.

We try to plant some hopeful seeds

In the barren soil of despair.

But the feet we wash walk a different road

Which may eclipse our own,

And they may be worthy to carry that load,

Like the angels rolling the stone:

Rolling the stone; rolling the stone; rolling the stone away:

The darkness is your brother, and we rise to another day!

April 20: "Christian" Means Integrity

"Christian" Means Integrity

Though the  meanings of things can be rather murky,

You can't be a Christian and also a turkey.

You can be a Christian and a lot else besides,

Because it's more about service than spiritual pride.

Loving God and your neighbor just as yourself,

It’s a joyful indifference to material wealth.

I can’t see how the doctrines are plausibly so,

But it’s in that garden I’ve been able to grow.

You can believe in Jesus and still be a Jew,

As Jesus was, and his followers, too:

Like the blind man opened his eyes and saw

In God’s power and mercy, the fulfillment of Law.

Jesus bears out the spirit of a Buddhist reality

In his selfless compassion; his balanced morality,

Seeking truth within you; not just something above:

 A deeper foundation for all of our love.

I think I'm Taoist, or Hindu, though not in affinity.

I have found many forms in the  one divinity,

Which we may realize in life’s changing flow --

Truth too soft to define, yet simple to know.

These are consistent with Jesus, the Christ;

A person of wisdom and sacrifice . . .

Could a Christian be Muslim?  Now don't you laugh!

All Ways are respected in the Sufi path,

And though Muhammed be harsh, his revelation

Was just as intent on our souls’ salvation,

With a single God for a holy society,

That nurtures reverence, respect and propriety!

We must find for ourselves liberation from fear;

Reflect on the prophets, but find Spirit  here!

I find it in church or in covens of witches.

I know I am poor, but I also have riches;

A well-spring of joy, and my sense of what's true,

And the peace I can feel in my life, passing  through.

Now:  Is there anyone else I might have missed?

Well, you can't be a Christian and an atheist!

Yet these are as attentive to human concerns,

Though preferring to put them in secular terms.

I was once one of them:  A healthy defiance

When I needed to focus on self-reliance,

I've studied for decades, in and out of college,

But faith's not about having so much knowledge.

Still, I see correlations in the scriptures I read:

Each for its time, fulfilling a need,

It doesn't matter the patterns in how you live,

When you sense Christ is with you and you know God forgives!

You can be Christian and drug addicted.

You can trust Christ's ideal, no matter how you're afflicted.

If you're struggling to make it out on the street,

Or have too many options, with too much to eat.

You can be a rogue or a Robin Hood:

In the mix of oppression, find a way to do good!

You could be -- a conscientious objector,

You could be a soldier; be someone's protector.

You could save the world from an imminent end.

Maybe you could just be somebody's friend!

You can be a Christian and a lot else besides,

But you can't be a Christian and hide

From the predilections that Life gives to you:

You've got to be someone who follows through --

Rooted in wisdom that's rooted inside,

Not just in impressions based on puffed up pride.

To be a Christian, your heart must be true.

You can't be a Christian and a turkey too!

April 19: Christ Come Today

Christ Come Today

I’ve been trav’lin’; travelling hard;
got a worrying mind and a load on my back.

I’m keeping my trust in the Spirit of God
for a presence of kindness and strength for my pack.

Five hours I stood by the side of the road
with the cars going by in a regular stream.
The ice storm comes.  I can’t cover my nose,
and my brain grows numb in lingering dreams.

I consider the reasons for passing my by
and the times, for convenience, I’ve also refused.
I was chained to my wheels.  Now I’m learning to fly.
I travel wherever I choose!

Are you travelling far?  Do you ask your wife?

Is there space in your car?  Is there space in your life?

The high cost of living and the high cost of gas
remind you that nothing is free.

With the view that I’m lazy, you drive on past.

That’s a kind of concern and sincerity.

Or maybe this world of heartache and trouble
leaves you no place for charity.
You can’t help a stranger if your life is too muddled
to make any decision with clarity.

Where is heaven?  Could Christ come today?
Can he heal our depression?  Can he teach me to play?

I’m only a step ahead of my fears,
but this earth and God’s kingdom is home!

Though the world may close its eyes and ears,

I don’t feel alone!

God has blessed me with a family and friends,
and they listen whenever I call.
They believe in me even when they don’t understand,
and they pick me up when I call.

I thank God through both my pleasures and pain
as my Spirit grows stronger than emotional need,
For Jesus died leaving no one to blame,

And so would I love through my own words and deeds.

Chorus:

Are you travelling far? Do you ask your wife?

Is there space in your car?  Is there space in your life?

Are you ready for heaven?  Are you ready for play?

Can you teach me a lesson?  Are you Christ come today?

Repeat first two verses.

I think it’s when we’re sisters and brothers
and we seek the connection of “I” and “We”,
then it can’t be too long before we’ll discover
the way to both love and be free!

Chorus

April 18: The Climb

The Climb

I.

The hook and rope

Where I’d put my hope

Suddenly started to slip.

On a dangerous height,

I held on tight

As I felt for a firmer grip.

The psychic line

I use to climb

Is strong, with plenty of give.

When I fall from my goal,

I connect to my soul:

With all of my heart, I live!

I thought it was all philosophy.

I thought it was about education.

I thought it was about psychology,

And the expressions of imagination!

I thought it was building community,

And the potential for self-reliance.

I thought it was a mystical unity

In balance with the knowledge of science.

I thought it was needs to be fulfilled,

In balance with active compassion.

I thought it was building practical skills, . . .

But an avalanche came crashin’!

I did my best.  I passed the test,

In that I lived to tell my tales.

If I win or I lose, it is I who must choose,

And honor where truth prevails!

So now I’m back,

And I take up the slack,

While I keep my footing sure.

The sun and the wind,

And the eagles my friends.

Could I ask for anything more?

I’ve been feeling the strain,

But I slowly sustain

My weight in reaching the crest:

Then standing alone,

I gaze towards my home,

And take off my knapsack to rest.

II.

I say, “Don’t let the sorrow of strife

Seep in to make your heart bitter.

Don’t let your battles for life

Be driving you down to your knees!

You may need to run for the trees!

When the winds of your hopes haven’t blown your way

And you don’t know how to get fitter,

Just keep on looking for the part you can play.

You can’t let your fears make you freeze:

You must look for that choice you can seize!

There are so many needs to be fulfilled,

And so many cries for compassion.

We can make a difference if we have the will

Even when the billows come crashin’!

We do our best.  We see how we’re blessed.

And we grow as we tell our tales.

If we win or we lose, we join forces to choose

And trust that our truth will not fail!

And -- we all have a mountain to scale.

April 17: Long Red Butte

Long Red Butte

The long red butte says,

“Here I am!”

Whatever you think,

I don’t give a damn.

You can say whatever you want to say.

If I’m too rugged for you,

Find some other way.

The long red butte says,

“This is me!”

This is the way I’ve come to be.

It’s not the way

I’ve always been;

Shaped by water; by the ice and the wind.

I am the grandeur

that yet remains;

The remnant of what was a lake or a plain,

Lifted up by tectonic force

Which  altered what had been the usual course;

A change in ecology; change in the weather

A change in the landscape, now and forever

But the record remains, where I stand like a giant;

Unprotected, but I’m still defiant!

And you’re free to see me

 as a tragic hero

Who knows he will one day

dwindle to zero,

But I don’t sweat the changes, because they happen slow.

People live and die,

and many storms blow,

Settlers pass through, and then they’re gone

Wars may be fought, but I still live on.

Though rocks be jarred loose from a rumbling train,

Most of my body will still remain,

But when they finally bring me down to my knees,

This scrub will be forest

With wide-branching trees,

And that’s a future

I’m willing to face.

‘Til then I’ll be proud

to be holding my place.

I’m life’s changing expression,

But my roots are down deep.

Under pasture and farms,

 I may seem to sleep,

And though wind and rain may grind me to dust,

It’s rock that comprises most of the crust,

Shaped and molded

from earth’s various forms,

From rock and water,

all life is born.

You may see my beauty but ask,

“What’s the use?”

“I am that I am!”

I don’t need an excuse.