Saturday, May 12, 2012

I Have a Voice

I am distinctly grateful that, as a woman, I have the unique privilege of experiencing an era and a culture in which I am not forced to live with a man who lacks integrity. I get to choose. I get to choose relationship with a man of character or none at all. I am one of the first generations of women who can make that statement.

I have a voice.

Life may not be easier for me than it was for my predecessors. Abuse, domestic violence, rape, human trafficking, and sexism express themselves now in unprecedented ways. It breaks my heart and it makes me angry. But I cherish the fact that I do not have to tolerate these atrocities, not in my bed, in my home, in my office, or in my church. I do not have to tolerate what was once (and sometimes still is) considered morally acceptable but demoralizes, degrades, and dehumanizes women - wives, mothers, sisters, daughters. I do not have to live with violence, abuse, unfaithfulness, and other forms of exploitation in the secret places of my life, in the vulnerable places of my heart and identity as a woman and as a human being.

I have a voice.

As a woman, I can and will be hurt; it can’t be helped. Men will abuse their power. Other women will abandon me for their own safety. I will be lied to, cheated on, used, objectified, & devalued. I do not deserve it, I do not invite it, and it is not my fault. I will not let it tell me who I am.

I count. I matter.

I have a voice.

I have a unique opportunity in this life, in this world, to pursue my own values, to build my own integrity, to practice my own convictions, to love and serve God as his image, as his creation, as a woman, with Christ as my savior and Lord alone, whether single, married, widowed, or divorced.

I have a voice.

March 20, 2012 Via
http://crimsonsparrow.tumblr.com/


Saturday, January 7, 2012

I Am

in still, clear silence I breath
in and out
like a vibrant, living pool of
unrippled water waits
in peace
teaming with potential
the sky etches her reflections on
my softly beating heart
so soft
it moves without disrupting the caress of the clouds

  I am.

Did God say it in the beauty and glory of his own existence?
I am.
  this moment
I am.
  this flesh
I am.
  this breath, this stillness, this
simple
quiet
life

in the air around me, the over-flowing air, I hear
in and out
a rich, growing, moving, patient earth
unsettled soil, so vulnerably laying bare, singing
the creatures all raise up from the curve of its soft skin
new shoots of green and joy
so tender
it blooms in painstaking yet glorious slowness

  I am.

Did God say it in the wonder of knowing his exquisite gift of self?
I am.
  this air
I am.
  this heart
I am.
  this land, this passion, this
moving
stirring
life

In stillness
I breath water
In over-flowing air
I hear earth
In slowness
clouds caress me
In softness
blooms are birthed
In me
I know God and
in God
I know me

I am.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

A Moth to the Flame

O flame, that you could teach me
to burn without compunction
to light without grief
to consume without shame, apology, or regret
to be nothing more than fleeting, dependent, and frail
and yet powerful
unignorable
undeniable
untouchable
unstoppable...
Would then I be satiated?