April Twenty-Twenty Two

 

It’s good to know you’re here: A Prayer
Almighty One,
I used to think I had to approach
You/Thou
With formal language or
Unknown tongues or
Recited acronyms, bless it.
Now it’s nice to simply be us,
Together,
Isn’t it?
 
God of our rapid tests and nose swabs,
God in our bewilderment and grief,
God in our wordless prayers and our persistent fears,
God in our exhaustion and anger,
It’s just so good to know you’re here.
 
(Your presence these days
feels like vast patience and deep power,
poetry and prairie sunsets.)
 
God of our laughter and science,
God in our joy and comfort,
God in our patience and our kindness,
God in our rising up and renewal,
It’s just good to know you’re here.
 
I’ll bring everything I am to you,
None of it is a surprise, I know.
I don’t need to pretend to be less
Angry, disappointed, scared, sad,
Joyful, hopeful, awake, alive.
 
Emmanuel, God with us,
It’s your very with-us-ness
That gives us permission to pray
As fully human,
Fully beloved,
Fully known.
You’re here, and always, then, now, forever,
It’s just good to remember this again.
 
It’s just good to know you’re here,
Still, always,
In conversations that never really begin or end,
Wending their way through every aspect of
our Lives and your Love,
 
God in our cluttered homes and holy hospitals,
God in the sacred places we’ve forgotten,
God in the ordinary cathedrals of the spruces,
God in the grey sky and grocery list,
It’s just good to know you’re here
With us, still, always.
 
Amen.
-Sarah Bessey 

When It’s over, I don’t want to wonder 
if I have made of my life something particular, and real. 
I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened 
or full of argument.
I don’t want to wind up simply having visited this world.
—Mary Oliver

April, dressed in all his trip, hath put a spirit of youth in everything. -William Shakespeare 

Today by Billy Collins

If ever there were a spring day so perfect,

so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze

that it made you want to throw

open all the windows in the house

and unlatch the door to the canary's cage,

indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,

a day when the cool brick paths

and the garden bursting with peonies

seemed so etched in sunlight

that you felt like taking

a hammer to the glass paperweight

on the living room end table,

releasing the inhabitants

from their snow-covered cottage

so they could walk out,

holding hands and squinting

into this larger dome of blue and white,

well, today is just that kind of day.

click below for the hilarious story behind the gold dress that I have on loan for 2 weeks that I wore in a 1/2 Marathon today: 

Goldee Dress by Nuu Muu