Category Archives: Blessings

Will I Be Friends With My Mind?

Leave a reply

Will I Be Friends With My Mind?

Blessed are You,
Lord our God,
King of the Universe,
for my mind.
I’d rather curse You for it,
but that wouldn’t fit my poem.
My mind is prone to operating
with one wheel in the ditch.
Sleep is my drug of choice,
sweet relief from my mind.

Blessed are You
for meeting me in my mind,
proving once again
that You have a taste
for dinner with a sinner.
Because of Your audacity,
I consider making amends
with my mind.
Maybe we can get along
despite everything.

Blessed are You,
Lord our God,
King of the Universe,
for my mind—
filing cabinets of facts,
drawers in disarray,
windrows of worries,
and stacks of stories.
If it were empty
I would cease to exist.
So, thank You for the mess
and the miracle
that is my mind.

Holy Homemakers

1 Reply

Holy Homemakers

Blessed are You,
Lord our God,
King of the Universe,
for taking up residence in me.
I don’t think You are an implant,
sewn to the tissues of my brain, or heart.
You must live in that part of me
we humans fail to define,
the spirit or soul,
breath of life first passed
from Your lips to Adam’s
all those years ago.

Blessed are You for co-signing
on the mortgage
for these bones and flesh,
and putting Your name
next to mine
on the mailbox.

Blessed are You,
Lord our God,
King of the Universe,
for showing me how to belong
here in myself,
trusting what Your presence indicates—
that this is home—
my spirit, my body, and Your divinity
as homemakers.

Cats, Who Speak Their Minds

1 Reply

Cats, Who Speak Their Minds

Blessed are You,
Lord our God,
King of the Universe,
for kittens,
by turns eager or shy,
soft or sharp,
gentle or vicious,
always fully embodied.

Blessed are You for cats,
who know the wisdom of naps,
the wildness of string,
the curiosity of a cardboard box;
who speak their minds
with mews and purrs,
claws and paws and pointed ears.

Blessed are You,
Lord our God,
King of the Universe,
for senior cats,
who ease into all-day naps
quite naturally,
forget litter box etiquette,
and are content with a cuddle,
rather than a romp.
May I, too, receive life
with gaiety and age with grace.

Country Music

Leave a reply

Country Music

Blessed are You,
Lord our God,
King of the Universe,
for country music,
reminding me that every story
is worth singing:
love found, and love lost,
cancer and ticks,
forgetting and remembering,
leaving and coming back.

Blessed are You
for what twin fiddles
and a steel guitar teach us:
that too much of a good thing
is a good thing,
that a man can park under neon lights
and find wisdom over a glass of milk,
that a messy life is paradise,
dancing is better than television,
and if we’re going through hell
to keep on walking.

Blessed are You,
Lord our God,
King of the Universe,
for showing up behind the couch
where a little girl hid,
for Hollywood and turnip greens
in the same song,
for Jesus, sex, alcohol, and forever love
in the same world.
When it’s all said and done,
what a beautiful mess we’re in
with You.

First verse:
Inspiration from Brad Paisley

Songs referenced – second verse:
Heartland, George Strait
Too Much of a Good Thing, Alan Jackson
The Good Stuff, Kenny Chesney
Just Another Day in Paradise, Phil Vassar
Why Don’t We Just Dance, Josh Turner
If You’re Going Through Hell, Rodney Atkins

Songs referenced – third verse:
The Little Girl, John Michael Montgomery
Good Directions, Billy Currington
Beautiful Mess, Diamond Rio

Storms, and Other S-Words

1 Reply

Storms, and Other S-Words

Blessed are You,
Lord our God,
King of the Universe,
for sex.
I am drawn by passion
or a desire for passion.
I am drawn to celebrate the joy
and relief of belonging.

Blessed are You
for storms,
set to kill, or thrill,
or water the earth.
Thunderstorms ground me—
flashes of light,
beating of great sky-gongs,
loud but gentle fall of rain.
The smell of washed earth
says I belong here.

Blessed are You,
Lord our God,
King of the Universe,
for the safety of You—
a safety that embraces
mystery and madness,
skepticism and silence,
and humankind’s violent and dark
underbelly—human trafficking,
and other tragedies.

When there is not a wisp of cloud
over endless, hellish desert,
there is a whisper that you belong
in yourself and in the heart of God.

All Over My Face

Leave a reply

All Over My Face

Blessed are You,
Lord our God,
King of the Universe,
for the sudden rise of mirth
up through my torso,
rushing out my open mouth
to be heard: laughter.

Blessed are You
for the intimacy of a laugh,
bypassing my mental security system
to embrace a stranger.
Or, taking its place
at the dining room table
to remember for the hundredth time
when Papa split his jeans open
while trying a dance move.

Blessed are You,
Lord our God,
King of the Universe
for the relational
bridge-building
of laughter.
For a moment I forget
all other things
to enjoy the one thing.
I am released,
reduced,
re-membered,
and it’s written
all over
my face.

No Formula

Leave a reply

No Formula

Blessed are You,
Lord our God,
King of the Universe,
for the ways
we fertilize change
and for the ways
change escapes
our eager efforts.
We work,
and something happens,
or nothing.
We do not work
and nothing happens,
or something.

We try hard,
then harder.
The problem worsens.
We invest long years
until: success,
or, the loss of a dream
we didn’t know was a dream
until it vaporized
and broke our hearts.

Blessed are You,
Lord our God,
King of the Universe,
for giving us much influence
and little control,
for standing beside us
as we watch our labor
burn to the ground,
or produce one hundred fold,
always saving us from the lie
that our value lives in
what we have made or lost.
Your grace exposes our folly
and assures us that whether
our legacy is beauty or pain
(likely both)
we are fields of treasure.

Invisible Inspiration

1 Reply

Invisible Inspiration

Blessed are You,
Lord our God,
King of the Universe,
for wind,
invisible.

It chases leaves
across empty lots,
or dances with them in trees.
It bends branches,
teaching them to be flexible.
It tangles long hair
and balloon strings,
carries smell
and sound and mist.

Blessed are You
for wind that stirs up water,
plays with grasses in the fields,
and entices flowers to bob and weave.
It inspires me though I have never seen it
and never will.

So may I be inspired
by Your Spirit
dancing with me,
tangling me,
teaching me to be flexible,
and bringing all manner of things
to my attention.
May I feel it—feel You—
everywhere,
for You in Your invisibility
touch more than I ever will
with my flesh and bones.

Pine Needles

1 Reply

Pine Needles

Blessed are You,
Lord our God,
King of the Universe,
for pine needles.
They begin soft, small,
bright green. New life
at the tips of aged branches,
pushing last year’s needles
from youth to middle age.

Blessed are You
for brown needles,
falling,
carpeting the forest floor,
muffling running hoofs,
holding moisture for growing things.

Indigenous peoples
form these thinnest of leaves
into baskets, mats, art.
Mourning doves
pluck them from the ground
to balance them in bushes or trees,
making slipshod nests to hold eggs,
then baby birds—
dead needles witness new life.

Blessed are You,
Lord our God,
King of the Universe,
for the life of a tree needle,
and for its death.
It surrenders, not knowing
whether it will become dirt
on the forest floor
or something new
in the hands of a child
or the beak of a bird.

May I, too, trust death
to bring life,
and allow respect
to mingle with fear
of the unknown.

Sacred

1 Reply

Sacred

Blessed are You,
Lord our God,
King of the Universe,
for sleep and sunshine and summer,
for salamanders and salad,
slugs and spiders,
for skin.

Blessed are You for sorrow and “sorry,”
surprises and scrambled eggs,
sweet and sour,
song and silence,
strength and surrender,
swings and swans and swooning,
smoothies and smooches.

Blessed are You,
Lord our God,
King of the Universe,
for sending Your Son,
Your Self,
Your Soul,
for mine.