safely made is the night's passage

borne on the iridescent wings of sleep

borne on the softly feathered air
of ten thousand breaths
taken, unearned
to arrive again on these bright steps of morning
an unrepentant thief of grace                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

the ruella are in the fairy

chaos reigns 

the four o'clocks mock the hour

showing up when 

they damn well please

while the mustangs muck up the la france 

the wilting impatiens are wrist to forehead

faint from heat

even in the shade

as the chile pequins, rigid with delight,

stiffly stick out their little hot red tongues...

standing here in the noisy mess

of my own disarray

i fit right in

and firmly resist the grace that always comes 

in awe of all of this wild abundance

perversely to enjoy 

the wicked invasions of johnson grass

and the proudness of weeds 

i cannot die
because there is grace

i only live
because there is grace

we are never without grace
we are only without knowing it

miracle on the hudson

...you know, something about calling an extraordinary event a 'miracle' makes people think it was by the Grace of God that all 155 survived ...as if to imply that, had any perished, it would have been a case of Divine Abandonment. Why would we think that?

Why would we not believe that God is with everyone, all of the time? do we really think that God still kills some and spares others, old testament style? where does the new covenant apply? or are there only certain times when God is Love? why ever would we think the Eternal Mind would dumb down to embrace some human notion of 'divine justice' ....divine 'grace' for some and divine 'too bad' for others?

Perhaps the only miraculous aspect to this life is our spiritual stubbornness....our refusal to celebrate the presence of the unseen-but-felt--the presence of angels, or sudden insight or intuition, and always that still, small voice--in ordinary everyday things until all of life is experienced as sacred. Until all of life is an ongoing, intimately accessible experience of God...and if this should not be our experience of God--or Tao, or Presence, or whatever is our spiritual tonality--then what is our little human explanation for that?

kingdom

that kingdom-within thing...
love everybody, no exceptions
so simple 
so impossible
so embarrassing
always to be in the cycle of
screwingup, beingsorry
screwingup, beingsorry

what if we could have
one giant mudslinging swampdance of grace
to play in so we'd always have it
all over us, all the time?

oh, wait...
we've already got it

i get it

at temple rock

watery wrinkles moving in the space ahead
so close i could touch them...
where nothing seems to be
something just... is...
like grace
...and so you must be here with me
standing on an old texas hillcountry road
on a breathless, starry summer night
with rock and cedar as temple and witness
and the low trill of a screech owl for a psalm

if it bleeds, it leads

alas and did my savior bleed
there is a fountain filled with blood
are you washed in the blood
there's power in the blood
nothing but the blood
precious blood

huh.
what is it that
at dawn
gives you hope
and
at the end of the day
gives you peace
you can hold onto


not the bloody hammered nails into flesh
not dogs, wires, needles, ropes, gags or waterboards
...the everyday gore of human lust
not the glory of war
not martyrdom for 72 black-eyed virgins
nor martyrdom for God's will

...something about the sweet way he lived
still lives
in the Presence

the blessing
the healing
the love
the shared grace

'doesn't sell newspapers
nor, it would appear, 
does it sell christianity
feral or otherwise

love is not the exciting hard news
but blood is the very definition of it

and there you go

is it not rare

love's radiance
overtaking fear

and love's grace
forgiving
without the asking

on balance of sacrifice and fulfillment

what do you suppose God had in mind

are we in this world for no other purpose than to give it all up for heaven? wherever that is...whatever that is...
mouthing the psalms, 
lip-syncing the creed
abandoning self, 
vacating desire
life written small, 
fear as subtext
walking like a nun close to the wall
securing salvation 
and spiritual safety
...at such a cost
...numbed out, co-opted, judged, shamed, burned

what are we doing here...really...
either God is Love
or God is Not...
if Love is the life force,
if Love is the sacredness of our true being,
if Love compels us to give ourselves in unselfish, living service to each other...
then what else do we need to know?

we are called to live inside out, revealed
sacrificing safety, dependent solely on grace,
mending, nurturing, open
coming alive to others' needs,
understanding our own...
co-creating
Love
without
fear