Consider
There are days appointed
for you to suffer. On these days
you must simply endure.
There is no silver lining.
Only the bitter of dust.
Don’t pray to the Twitter-God
on such days. His 140-character
belchings mock the very dignity
that is your life.
Find a crucifix instead, if only one
cobbled in your throbbing head,
one that conjures up the profanity
of a shit-stained-thirty-something
holding on for his dear life.
Then look up, if you dare, up into
the bottomless playground of birds
and listen close to their hilarity.
The suffering is part, but not all.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I’m nowhere near the heart of suffering, but tasting the dust for some time now. I was starting to believe that old lie that maybe I’m just depressed because the hollow hallelujahs don’t ring right now, but that cross, that I can hold onto.
oh wow….knee-buckling, this one is….
Makes me think that this piece is part but not all of a silver lining…
the bottomless playground of birds . . . I listen to their hilarity often. Something about suffering that goes well with bird watching. They teach us, if we spend time listening to the stories God gives them. This says so very much.
One of your finest
From: the beautiful due <comment-reply@wordpress.com> Reply-To: the beautiful due <comment+rw4tjo3p9-_ybo_38gatpyl@comment.wordpress.com> Date: Tuesday, January 7, 2014 5:17 AM To: Wendi Lord <wendi.lord@integritymusic.com> Subject: [Suspected SPAM] [New post] Consider
thebeautifuldue posted: “There are days appointed for you to suffer. On these daysyou must simply endure.There is no silver lining. Only the bitter of dust.Don’t pray to the Twitter-God on such days. His 140-characterbelchings mock the very dignitythat is your life.Find a crucifi”
Wow. I feel this in my gut. Thanks, John, for giving words to my reality. you are right, the Twitter-God is worse than useless. And thanks as well for the gentle reminder that this is part, but not all.
“part, but not all”
thank you, thank you for this
The idol image is strong. To press one’s head upward and leave one’s heart open is hard.
Looking up is the key when so many things press us downward. Your vision is a celebration of that cross, John. You praise Him so very well.
This one will be around long after you are gone, friend.
My old freind’s words have left me with nothing to say. Only to look up. And listen.
this is loaves and fishes for me today…
Well-struck, friend. You are seeing the ball well these last few days, seems to me. Though I admit a certain bias in the direction of those searching for new language in which to pray these days. Cheering for you, as always, as we Zen Anglicans call intercessory prayer.
NAMASTE —
R. Benson
>
Yeah, I highly recommend looking at the birds. And then reading this again. And again. Thanks, John.