The Poetry of Lent

Now that the King Cake is settling in my stomach, I have turned my sights on tomorrow, Ash Wednesday, and the season of Lent. I have been thinking and praying about what to do for Lent this year and what I have decided to do is continue what I started for Advent and have not stopped doing. And that is writing a poem every day. I know, for many people, that idea makes you cringe. But for some reason, I have greatly enjoyed the challenge I set for myself for Advent and I haven't stopped. Everyday the Society of Saint John the Evangelist puts out a word of the day with a quote from one of the brother's sermons. (I highly recommend getting their emails.) I put that word in my journal in the morning and let it bounce around my head throughout the day. At the end of the day, I write down the poem that comes. What I am going to do for Lent is share them on this blog. You are welcome to read and ponder them too, and even respond. I do not guarantee that the poetry will always be good or will rhyme well, or even will be completely serious (despite being part of Lent). This is not an official devotion of the Holy Spirit community or any other church group. Holy Spirit has great devotion booklets available with reflections written by people throughout the congregation. But this is part of how I am opening the doors of my life to God this Lent. As I have learned throughout my life what it means to be a pilgrim on a journey with God, poetry is also a journey and I have no doubts that certain thoughts, themes, ideas, and images will emerge over the course of this season. I look forward to seeing what God has for me in the coming weeks. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nutritional Wellness

Image
I love food.  The tastes, the smells, the experience of eating.  I even like gardening and the creation of food. The cooking and baking processes of making individual items into marvelous meals.  My digestive system has a much more complicated relationship with food. There are many things my digestive system overreacts to or feels the need to attack.  Over the years of trying to figure out what my digestive system will tolerate I've had to change my focus on eating for wellness  and learn to create the things I like with the ingredients my body also likes. Its not an immediate change in mindset. It takes time and energy and reminders. Because eating is such a communal experience, it has also taken community adjustment. Finding family and friends who will support my journey and focus on wellness.  I have found that my focus on wellness has been a little bit contagious.  As others have supported me in focusing on digestive wellness, others have been inspired to focus on their own nut
Read more

Book Review: Radiant Rebellion: Reclaim Aging, Practice Joy, And Raise A Little Hell, by Karen Walrond

Image
This isn't a scientific book about aging. It isn't a book about how to age well or what you should do as you are aging. It is a book about aging into who you want to be.  It is a book about looking into the mirror and seeing the smile on your face and light in your eyes. Karen Walrond guides us on the journey she took leading up to her year of aging anniversaries and milestones. She explains how she took the time and space in her life to reflect on what it means to age, to acknowledge and combat internalized ageism, and to figure out who she wanted to be as she grew older. She shares some research, tips, tricks, and lessons learned from professionals and elders in her life. As in her previous books, her conversational writing style, easy prose, and gift of storytelling makes this an interesting and engaging read. She offers thoughtful challenges to the 'normal' ways we think about age and what it means to grow older.  Karen Walrond doesn't take the reader on this jo
Read more

The Question of Faith

  What do you have faith in? Now I know the parables are good today, And I'm not going to talk about them Because one of the most basic things about religion is faith. You can blame St. Paul for today's sermon. All religions require faith. Faith is the belief in things not seen. In some ways, all the ideals we aspire to love, justice, charity, hope they are the bedrock on which any religion is created, including some things we don't think of as religion, but could be construed that way, are things we cannot see. We can't see justice, certainly these days we don't see a lot of evidence for it. We can't see equality or freedom or peace because they are ways of talking about systems in which everyone belongs and feels comfortable being themselves and we know we have not achieved that kind of world. Anyway, without faith, there is no religion no Christianity, no Judaism, no Islam, no Jainism, no pantheism. In the passage from Paul to the Romans, he writes, "Now
Read more