Speech does not suffice.
We must see what we have heard.
Whose vision is true?
In this one blessing:
All that we humans can be.
Archetypes of life.
Now we understand
It is not as we had thought--
Reality Shifts.
At each encounter-
Before. Now. And What Comes Next-
Choices have been made.
Settled. Is this home?
Then then why do the tales unfold
In distant places?
They must have been named
So that we would remember.
But memory fails.
All this. Mine. That. Yours.
Even when the hand is full
Still we grasp for more.
Messy human life
Unfolds in these anxious scenes.
Which roles have I played?
Though we know not to
Rely on signs and wonders--
Still, we embrace them.
Some lives are too full.
Wanderings. And great struggles.
Breathe before reading.
Within each of us--
Seeds that seek out harmony;
And meanness and lies.
What we strive to build--
Reaches upward? Tumbles down?
How are we to know?
A world was once made
Out of chaos and darkness.
This time--we must build.
In a timeless loop
We recall where we have been
And what we must do.
Might there be more words
Unspoken before farewell?
Words we should have heard?
The view from atop.
Only the fortunate ones
Merit this promise.
Here. Again. We Stand.
With deepest hope. Yet. Afraid.
Still at the mountain.
Abundant blessings.
Matched by abundant curses.
We live in such time.
Painfully we read
How we can hurt each other.
Still so much to learn.
Someone will be wronged.
And we will be called to judge.
The task weighs heavy.
Looking. And Seeing.
What is beyond the mountains.
Requires Vision.
So simple. Yet hard.
When you have eaten your fill
Remember the Source.
Ancestral Promise.
Present Manifestations.
Tomorrow's teachings.
A new book opens
With recounting of the past.
Old ways or fresh paths?
Only looking back
Can I see the path I took
Creates its own map.
The passage of time
May cleanse the community
Still tribal roots count.
A good friends' warning
Just might be the bold message
You were meant to hear.
A law for all time.
Is it any wonder then
This week's theme was death?
This nation building--
Who has power and who wealth? --
How messy the task.
Angry Punishments.
And Pathways to Forgiveness.
Grasp that Knotted Fringe.
Always that tension-
Formations. Fixed Rules. Time Bound.
And the life we live.
Once consecrated
It takes strength and awareness
To shield that promise.
Note: To be numbered
Differs from being counted.
Stand when it matters.
Abundant harvests
And threats of desolation.
The land remains mute.
The lamps stand witness.
Waiting to see who ensures
The light stays burning.
Now outside the camp
Do you think the man wonders
Where to lead the goat?
What must it feel like
At the threshold of return
Just outside the camp?
If food guidelines can
Bring us closer to some truth...
Me? I'll eat rainbows.
This humble cracker
Takes us to times and places
Beyond memory.
Ashes. Heat. And Light.
That perpetual fire.
Transformed. Yet still burns.
Great wisdom resides
Within the words before us--
There can be healing.
See! What we have built.
When our hearts and hands were joined.
To craft holy space.
We know that people
Hear. See. Are moved by impulse.
Tests of leadership.
Head dress and Heart dress--
Reminders that one who leads
Serves the people first.
First comes the vision.
Followed by pain-staking care
As we craft each part.
All these rules and laws
Tumbling down the mountain.
Someone stirs the dust.
We each truly know
Our own mountain moment.
Mine? It's still shrouded.
Must there always be
One side against another-
Foe. And contention?
We stand poised.Waiting.
To enter the beginning.
Of what will come next.
A familiar tale:
Choices our leaders make
Rain down upon us.
In times of distress
We cling to omens and signs...
And in times of grace?
What tribe does not think
Family and land and bones
Ever connected?
