The day began with so much promise

 The day began with so much promise.

Coffee steam rising from the cup,

a special cup for reasons unspoken.

Sunshine peered around the curtain’s edge

fattening squirrels skittered about the yard.

Promise, behold the day!

A few errands, tasks left cautiously to the side until they could be abandoned no more.

Pick up. Drop off. Exchange some hard earned credit for this, and that.

The rattle has been incessant, even after long hours of work

to strengthen the suspension of an old Pilot.

Plastic. A cover not secured, resonating with every movement of this massive machine.

Easily set aside. Quiet order is restored.

Paint has been peeling for at least three years. 

First a little, soon a lot.

Wood around the large front picture window is exposed, grainy, raw.

Scrape. Sand. Wash.

Primer soaks, caulk oozes into corners awaiting the chilling rain.

It’s loud in here. 

Noise is reaching a fever pitch. 

Politics seem louder than the screamo festival I attended years ago with my teenage son.

To endure the noise may be love, or it may be our intent to survive.

Is it enough to just survive? The day began with so much promise… 

Positivity used to be a secret power that we unleashed.

Glass cathedrals echoed, “positive thinking is POWER.”

27% is a catastrophic warning.

Positivity: frightening, positively heartbreaking.

Broccoli soup is the evening bowl.

Table thanks flow easily over steam that rises,

but what of the millions that have no heat?

Within the physical depths

there is a lingering pain.

Anxious organs wait to snap.

My soul is enshrouded in a misty, damp chill.

What if we can’t right the ship?

When the reflection is unrecognizable, who have we become?

Who have I become?

Once the switch has been disconnected, flipping it doesn’t mean a thing.

Are we too late? Did we miss the promise of the day?

Hope declares that we are not done yet.

Faith intones a power greater than our own.

Grace compels us to try again.

Steam rises. Tonight's tea.

Decaffeinated. Herbal. Comfort.

Still. 

The day.

So much promise.

No Going Back

 I originally posted this on Facebook on October 5, 2020. 

I keep seeing posts about "getting back" to something that supposedly was "better." Back to an America that was "better." Back to an economy that was "better." Back to a discourse that was "better." Back to .....

The reality is that there is nothing worth going back to. The longing for a return to something that was familiar and that we enjoyed is nostalgia; it doesn't mean it was "better."

The God I serve is a God who calls for a continual unfolding. Things will not ultimately be "better" until God makes it so. And the fact that it has yet to be made so means that nothing that was before is the type of "better" that I want to return to, or am called to return to, or believe in returning to. It doesn't mean it wasn't good; it's just not the ultimate good.

In the meantime, what we must aspire to is a new future in which humanity both intrinsically and extrinsically demonstrates that we recognize the uniquely powerful responsibility that we've been given for one another and for the world which we inhabit.

So far we've done a pretty lousy job with that responsibility. Neither democrat nor republican is the savior we seek. We each must take action toward a more responsible future. We must care for one another and care for our environment. Our care will never be perfect, but we can do better, so much better. We need leaders, too, who care and will empower us to care.

We can start by centering not on ourselves, but on the other.

What will improve the lives of those around me?

What can I do to make life better for someone else?

What is needed from me to care for God's whole creation?

What habits, attitudes, prejudices, insecurities, and fears do I hold that I must confront and repent of in order to serve the well-being of those around me?

Pursue these things. Then perhaps we'll experience those better days that we so long for, not by returning to some nostalgic past but rather by living into our responsible, hopeful future, together.