Daily Reminder # 83

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Old photos and old poems and incoherent rambling tonight.... the photos are from August 2 years ago when my camera didn't yet have the same issues it now has with focus and its light sensor. The poems are from my youth. I haven't written anything new in a while and I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel now.

This first one is a kind of secret love poem inspired by a book and author whose name I no longer remember. I read it during my Creation Theology phase. I googled my way to finding Mathew Fox and the book Original Blessings, which reminded me of the phrase creation theology, but I haven't been able to find anything that reminds me of the name of the author. Getting old and forgetting stuff really sucks. You know it's bad when even google can't get you there.

Anyway, among the thing I most remember was him writing about his experience of going to - I think it was Peru (it was somewhere in South America) and experiencing himself in a new and humble way because he was very verbal and even though he knew Spanish well, compared to the population, he was verbally a child. He was much more eloquent than I'm being. But I think sometimes when we are in situations that are new to us, we are able to open ourselves in ways we can't normally. I remember that my first solo vacation was to Jamaica. I'm very shy but because I was alone, somehow I made lots of friends there and experienced myself in a way that was different than my normal life.

But I'm just rambling. Here's the poem for what it's worth. I was in un or semi requited love with my pastor at the time. I wrote this for him (but that was a secret).

I and thou

Reaching out in fear and hope

Rejoicing in our separate unity with God

And our togetherness with man

I and thou

Reaching outward towards our deeper selves

Unclosing doors

To let the stranger enter and be known

I and thou

Reaching out with open hands to God

Our lives a song of joy

A psalm of praise

A prayer that flows unceasing from our souls

I and thou

Reaching out to love and life

The journey in itself a prayer

The joy of faith a benediction.

- Katherine E. Rabenau

And then this little poem... the country feels so fractured right now... I just thought I'd share this one

LINCOLN

Men have called me honest

Said that I was wise and good

But all I saw was a nation, dying in my arms,

Burning with a fever I could not quell.

- Katherine E. Rabenau

Some things I'm grateful for today:

• friends
• water
• colors
• netflix
• Neal Donald Walsh
• The ability to walk
• new cat toys
• pictures from 2 years ago
• the guy who wrote the book I can't remember the name of

HAVE A GREAT DAY!