Closing doors

A really interesting poetry party this week. Do read the article - and play the door game - mentioned by Christine at Abbey of the Arts who says:

Our Twentieth Poetry Party! I select an image and suggest a title and invite you to respond with your poems, words, reflections, quotes, song lyrics, etc. Leave them in the comments or email me and I’ll add them to the body of the post as they come in along with a link back to your blog if you have one (not required to participate!) I’ll add your contributions all week and then I will draw a name at random on Friday from everyone who participates and will send the winner a copy of my newest zine Season by the Sea: A Contemporary Book of Hours. Feel free to take your poem in any direction and then post the image and invitation on your blog and encourage others to come join the party! (a blog is definitely not required to participate!)

Last week I discovered this article about the advantages of limiting our options in a world where we have such an abundance of choices, both superificial as in what kind of TV to buy and the more serious as in where to live geographically or what kind of work to engage in. We have so many more options than just a couple of generations ago and it can be both liberating and dizzying. Lately I have been contemplating the way I feel pulled in many directions sometimes because I have many gifts and many ways I want to express them. I love the many facets of the work I do, but I recognize an inner pull or call to begin to consider saying no to some options as a way of developing myself in one or two areas.

We tend to believe that open doors are signs of the sacred. So I thought this might be worth exploring in poetry — have there been times when a door closing was a blessing? Can you imagine which options you might like to limit in order to have a fuller sense of how you are being called?

And if somewhere deep inside you is a voice saying “no, I don’t want to close any doors” — then write a poem about that!

This week I listened to an interesting radio programme about Haiku. Seventeen syllables seems a good counterpoint to my last long poem so here goes:

Shortlisted again
Despondent can I choose to
Bless the closing door

Thanks Christine. There may be more to come!

Summertime reading

Songbird posted the Friday Five over at RevGalBlogPals this week. Still Friday for some of you so I'm in for a play. Here it is:

Back in the day, before I went to seminary, I worked in the Children's Room at the Public Library, and every year we geared up for Summer Reading. Children would come in and record the books read over the summer, and the season included numerous special and celebratory events. As a lifelong book lover and enthusiastic summer reader, I find I still accumulate a pile of books for the summer.

This week, then, a Summer Reading Friday Five.

1) Do you think of summer as a particularly good season for reading? Why or why not?
Yes. It is the time I have for protracted relaxation and a book is a great companion at the beach or in the tent.

2) Have you ever fallen asleep reading on the beach?
No I don't think so.

3) Can you recall a favorite childhood book read in the summertime?
We generally spent Christmas Day with my grandparents on their farm near Hamilton (central North Island, NZ). They had the most amazing collection of old children's books that I would sit in the bay window and devour after lunch. I especially remember Ameliaranne and her mother who washed laundry for a living. With phrases like 'enough blue in the sky to make a hundred pairs of soldiers' trousers'

4) Do you have a favorite genre for light or relaxing reading?
Pretty eclectic - historical novels, human interest stories like Jodi Picoult, and I love my 'chick lit' during the summertime.

5) What is the next book on your reading list?
Bio of Tony Blair. I'm interested to learn about this man who led the UK to make a strong stand against child poverty and to actually put policies in place to address this, and who also led his country to take military action in Iraq. The way he was portrayed in The Queen also piques my interest. It is a huge volume and well suited to winter reading snuggled under the covers.
Songbird has updated the RevGalBookPals schedule through October, so if you are looking for summer reading, look there!

Predicting the Past

Not totally sure why I just love this Savage Chickens: Flashback! Cartoon but I do! Things are always so clear through the retrospectoscope. Thanks Doug for a great post.

Beautiful world.

There is so much truth in holding apparently disparate truths in tension with integrity as we journey through this life. My heart is so much in pain as I consider the situation in Zimbabwe and I stand in admiration for the brave church leaders who have spoken out despite personal risk of severe harm. The WCC have provided excellent prayer and worship resources that I hope will be picked up around the world. With all our time zones we should be able to have a continuous chain of prayer for this torn land. Sitting here on a sunny warm autumn day all this seems miles away, and this little video seems so relevant
and so with you I hold diverse thoughts together without trying to make sense of the multiple paradoxes

Motivational Friday Five

Motivational you ask? Well as soon as I saw the first word I knew the photograph I wanted, taken in Italy in the year 2000, would be in one of those boxes in the top of my wardrobe or even more challenging, in the garage. And I have sorted junk until I found it (at the bottom of the final box. Then (re)mastered scanning to disk to turn a hard copy photo into something that can whizz through cyberspace. Thanks Singing Owl over at RevGalBlogPals.

From a beautiful sunny day at her place - and mine - here's the five based on words from the Lovin' Spoonful song, "Summer in the City."

Below you will find five words or phrases. Tell us the first thing you think of on reading each one. Your response might be simply another word, or it might be a sentence, a poem, a memory, a recipe, or a story. You get the idea:

1. rooftop 2. gritty
Sand in my togs (bathers, swimsuit, whatever y'all refer to them as it still feels the same)

3. hot town (yeah, I know, it's two words)
Two towns then for two words. Arbroath (Scottish east coast) - where hearing about the warmth shown immediately after WW2 by Scottish women who tended the graves of NZ airmen killed nearby warmed my heart - and the whisky afterwards warmed everything else on ANZAC Day 2005. And Dublin's fair city (below) ...

4. night lights

5. dance
A memory of cafe worship after Easter where people took off their shoes and stood in paint then danced on the calico. Those more timid contributed hand prints. The finished result was fantastic. Music was BLERTA's Dance all around the world

Call to prayer for Zimbabwe

Our congregation started on Monday with a nightly prayer vigil for the people of Zimbabwe in the lead up to the run-off election on June 27.

Yesterday we received this call from the World Alliance of Reformed Churches

Dear friends,

Many of us have been saddened by the events unfolding in Zimbabwe. In the presidential elections that took place on March 29, the people of Zimbabwe expressed themselves. Then they had to wait for several weeks before “official” results were announced. In accordance with those “official results” a run-off election was called for Friday, June 27.

Credible reports reaching us indicate a blatant intimidation of voters and people being tortured. Some have died. Already Zimbabweans have been suffering under the burden of high inflation and lack of essential commodities. The current spate of violence and intimidation seems to be targeted at those who did not vote for the ruling party, especially in some specific rural areas. This creates a very intimidating atmosphere for the run-off elections. We are committed to the rights and welfare of all Zimbabweans, not just to one party or the other. Our main concern now is to ensure that Zimbabweans feel free to express their democratic rights.

The World Council of Churches has this week called on all Christians to set aside this Sunday, June 22 to pray for Zimbabwe. We echo this call, and ask all our member churches to keep the people of Zimbabwe and the elections on Friday, June 27 in their thoughts. Please join Christians all over the world in praying for Zimbabwe this Sunday, and every day of next week.

Thank you very much.

Yours sincerely,

Rev. Dr Setri Nyomi
General Secretary

I was a student doctor spending three months in Raxaul, India when the nation of Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980. It was a time of such hope for a new nation. One of my colleagues was toying with the idea of naming her baby Zimbabwe, she was so struck by the image of the bird of freedom. I remember her saying "They even have a bird on their flag. Imagine a country having a bird on their flag."

The reality now is so vastly different and recorded in so many places including UNICEF and the UN. The Times leading article today calls for international action (photo of Robert Mugabe above is from The Times)

Last night I really didn't know how to pray. The horrendous reality is there before me. What can I do or say from my comfortable vantage point to make any difference? The Psalms of lament help. And the amazing testimony of the Zimbabwean people who, covered in bruises from continual beatings over many hours, were still able to say that they knew they stood for something much bigger and more important than the violent agenda of their oppressors.

I can in some small way stand beside these courageous people. I can unite with people around the globe at this crucial time in holding this country and all its people in our hearts. I recognise the value of the relationships within the Church, and partnerships between churches in different countries, that bring a personal dimension to the situation. I can pray for peace and justice to prevail.

This morning as I was pondering on my response I read Eternal Echoes. I found Sally's paraphrase of Gerard Kelly's poem provides words that I can say in the face of unspeakable pain and suffering:

Because he lives,

a fire burns in my bones,

and my eyes see possibilities

and my heart hears hope

like a whisper on the wind

and the song that rises in me

will not be silenced

as life disrupts

this shadowed place of death

like a butterfly under the skin

and death itself

runs terrified to hide.

Because he lives!

The whole poem is here


Again to quote Gerard Kelly via Sally
How can I stand before someone who has faced untold suffering and not offering weak platitudes still be able to say and believe that there is a day coming when this will be no more, that Jesus will indeed wipe away every tear from our eyes? God's plan is for restoration. THIS IS OUR HOPE!

I find it hard to be hopeful in the face of all that is happening around us. And yet I cling to hope. Sometimes I worry that hope stops me from taking action (because God or the UN will set it right). At a deeper level hope propels me to action, because I can do no less. Letter to Kevin Rudd on the way. And I will be there in the evenings listening, and learning, reading and praying, lighting a candle, threading prayer beads, making and planting a cross in the sand tray, alongside others.

Where should I be?

I first saw this savage chickens original on Hudson's notebook. Val has it too. And the Savage himself gave permission to post it here. Thanks Doug! I love it.

There have been so many cutesy variations on this theme over time. Bloom where you are planted. Wherever you go, there you are! But this beats all aphorisms.

This little cartoon is very helpful to me as I live and continue the process of finding work in a new place.

Not so useful in addressing my spatially challenged reality. But for that I have a street directory.
So all is sweet :-)