Posted in Different Moments, Uncategorized

Ireland: Day 1

Recently, our family was able to visit Ireland. We had flight credit left over from when flights were cancelled, and we lived in Hungary due to the global pandemic. Combine that with a brother who lives in Dublin for a few years, and it meant we really needed to go! (Free flights & free lodging = Yes, please!)

It was awesome (full stop). So much could be said, but I will summarize each day with a poem and a single picture. Here’s Day 1 (It gets better, promise)…

All packed for a family vacation
(Though down one, we missed while at camp)
Embarking to Emerald Island
Sending ourselves instead of a stamp

Reminded at every terminal
Of two centuries and a half
Examined and prodded with smiling critique
By well-mannered airport-ish staff

Very soon, the strong winged portal
Will whisk us to our destination
Like ancient magic, our family moves
With speed and yet still limitation

They say to us, “Buckle for safety”
When turbulent winds may appear
What do they think we’ve been doing
Each moment of our journey here?

Relinquishing all control fully
We go where we all will be taken
Landing on waking, in Dublin
Unless our pilot is mistaken

Posted in Spoken Word

a mid-Lent poem

several weeks now we’ve journeyed
deeper into a new “Lent”
a moment of pause seems appropriate
to survey the time we have spent

you may have been fasting from something
to separate wanting from need
examining our own dependence
vs. asking Jesus to intercede

it may be that you have added
a practice to deepen devotion
discovering new depths of Divine Love
like moving from pool to the ocean

but perhaps you may have forgotten
or thought such a practice for others
you wonder if there is still time to know
new practice or freedom from druthers

there are still three weeks left ’til Easter
each morning a fresh invitation
to invite His Spirit to soften our hearts
and offer us New liberation

will you invite new freedom from worry?
will you allow His peace to arrive?
will you attune to the depths of His Love,
released from all burden to strive?

God meets you even in this moment
As your heart considers the odds
This season can prepare your heart to be Loved
As we pause to remove all facades

Posted in Different Moments, Spoken Word, Uncategorized

all it takes.

give me a river with water on the move
give me a Saturday with nothing to prove
give me some time with my siblings laid back
let such be reminders there’s nothing I lack

give me sun shining around every bend
and shade from the trees, my skin to defend
crisp cool water and breeze to remind
wealth and pleasure are both here defined

flip flops and ability to take a breath deep
nothing to offer and nothing to keep
my wife and kids still happily dry
we’ll be reunited when evening is nigh

for now, shared experience of silence and sound
in such invitation, a deepness abounds
waters here shallow are blind to our depths
calm conversation one easily accepts

the current pulls forward in narrowing ways
and slows to a sabbath while widening praise
reflecting the goodness of One who has made
the land and the water, the sun and the shade

I sip from the water I’ve brought contained
and gulp with thanksgiving til nothing remained
the music of stillness, no ripples or wakes
healing relaxation, this is all it takes