In the mists of ever after
All my dreams are bathed in light.
Wrapped in arms so strong yet tender
Love upon midsummer’s night.
Never more an evening lonely,
Never more a heart un-whole.
Mists that promise love unending
Mists that whisper to my soul.
Lay with me beneath soft veils
Enveloped heart and soul and mind.
Share the mists of ever after
Share with me the mists of time.
Rise up from the ashes
Brush off the clinging gray
Face dawn with a flame tempered heart
Lay claim to the promised new day.
The past, it cannot fashion you
Your choices chart your path.
You and you alone will stand
To brave the aftermath.
So chose bravely, and with wisdom
The way that heals your soul.
And rise up from the ashes
Your legend as yet, untold.
Rise Up.
I have been thinking about you for the past two days.
Your favorite artist, Prince, died suddenly….unexpectedly.
Like you did.
I hope you were there when he arrived.
I hope that you greeted him, and welcomed him into the fold.
I hope that you made his way easier, as I hoped that someone had done for you.
No matter what your life was like towards the end
I try to remember you in the good times.
Like how you loved his talent.
How you loved to sing.
How you would close your eyes, lose yourself in the music and dance.
One of my fondest memories is of you dancing to Little Red Corvette
The pure unadulterated pleasure that shone from your face.
I have long since let you go, but I will never forget……
How we danced well together.
How we once, for too brief a time, loved well together.
You chose to leave “us” long before you chose to leave this world.
But you never let go of the music that was such a large part of you.
I hope that you get to sing with him.
Perhaps not “Little Red Corvette” but a song none the less
Your voice was always true.
God’s choir gained another voice yesterday.
And He will be praised in songs never before sung.
R.I.P. Eddie
R.I.P. Prince
Sing on for eternity.
The pastor was speaking of Jesus……
He spoke of His virtues, of His greatness.
Then he chastised the congregation….
He asked “How many of you truly know Him?”
“If Jesus were to appear before you today, how many of you could truly say that you know Him personally and that you have a relationship with Him?”
At first I was despondent, feeling unworthy….that I had not devoted enough of my life and my thoughts to Him.
Then I started to think about Him…..did I really “know” Him?
Immediately I thought “Jesus is love”. And I have known love.
I looked to my left at the man standing in prayer at my side. I thought about our love and what it had created. That led me to think of our one year old daughter in the nursery, who loved coming to church, had “danced” to the music every Sunday while still in my womb and would now dance around the living room to Jars of Clay, Michael W. Smith and Phillips, Craig & Dean.
Then I thought of my parents. How they had loved me and raised me. That they had sacrificed for myself and my two sisters and made sure that we knew the true meaning of selfless love. I thought of my grandparents….how one had raised a son as a single, unwed mother in the 1930s and had shown nothing but love and acceptance to her grandchildren. How the other two had raised a son and two daughters on an egg farmer’s income and taught me the true meaning of compassion. I thought of how my maternal grandmother’s words had shaped the person that I had become – I had been voicing my teenage opinion about a public figure and declaring that I hated him. She very gently informed me that I did not know him well enough to hate him. Words that have returned to me time and time again when I have rushed to judge another person.
JESUS IS LOVE
I HAVE KNOWN LOVE
It was at that very moment, as I was remembering my grandmother, that I suddenly became aware that something had changed. As I sank to the floor, unable to stand, I realized that I was no longer with the congregation. I was in a place of blessings……and as the tears started to flow I saw a most wondrous light. It was so brilliant that I should not have been able to look at it, yet I could. I saw a figure, clothed in a blue/white light walking towards me. As He got to me, He raised me off my knees and enveloped me in His arms. I experienced the most pure, unselfish feeling of love that I had ever felt before and have not felt since. Just as suddenly, I found myself back with the congregation. I wanted to run around the room shouting “He’s here! He’s here!” but I couldn’t move. On my knees I realized that the rest of the room had not seen Him. This was His gift to me and me alone.
As the years have passed, through each earthly trial or disappointment, I have remembered this day. As loved ones have passed on, I have had the comfort of knowing that He was waiting, arms extended, to welcome them home with love, compassion and acceptance.
The true meaning of the Christmas Season….the pure love of our Savior….these are the things that I hope to share with you now. It is the right time. Those of this world may think that I was delusional. They may think me brainwashed by the church-going masses or desperate to find a reason……
I know in my heart that Christ is Lord. He died for our sins and loves us unconditionally. And if I try my hardest, in my true heart, to love as He would love…..to treat my fellow human beings as He would want me to treat them, than whom have I harmed in my beliefs?
And who has benefitted?
May God bless you and yours.
Merry Christmas.
We travel o’er a rainbow road
With trees of amber, orange too
A multicolored page through time
A treasure map of changing hue
We follow not, the mapped page here
But choose to let the trail run free
Kaleidoscope trees become our guides
Painted masterpiece for my love and me
Suntanned roads, cut-sapphire ponds
Trees clothed in fluttering butterflies
Proud evergreen boughs to frame the shot
Oak leaf fireworks fill the skies
Robin’s egg vault a backdrop for
The flowing wind-blown cotton puff clouds
Maine’s Autumn paint by number days
My “Songs From the Wood” being painted aloud
Writing 201: Poetry
Today’s Prompt: Map
Today’s Form: Ode
Today’s Device: Metaphor
I have loved you 
For all of my existence
Through eons passed
For time itself.
Our souls travel one path
Intertwined
Reflections of each other
The universe our own.
Stars light our footpaths
Galaxies witness our devotion
Moonlight blesses our passion
All Creation our marriage bed.
This incarnation of our love
A love that has had no beginning
And will have no end
Bound for a moment on Earth.
This brief encounter
Our journey in Maine
Hand in hand
A mote in time.
This gallery contains 6 photos.
Along the stream’s edge serenaded by frogs Soothing water’s flow crackling of the logs Serenity within the campfire framed. In a cabin by Merrill Brook End of an avenue I took A dream is found, tranquility attained
I sit beneath the glowing moon
Bright, and close enough to touch
A supermoon to hear it told
A supernatural thing, as such
A night of magic, full of time
Spent without the bonds of men
A wondrous thing where life has rhyme
That touches on the Devine again
I speak my heart, a wounded thing
Crushed beneath the heel of one
Who spoke of love, and life, and us
Too easily said, too easily undone
Bleach my heart and wash my soul
Leach my pain out to the night
Wash o’er me with your rays of gold
And cleanse me with your subtle light
I breathe the scent of summer dark
Relax within the warm embrace
Shared with the fireflies’ precious spark
Feel the night caress my face
My heart is eased with promise made
Of healing in the Earth’s warm hand
Lit by the light of the supermoon
To live and laugh….and love again.
The trees speak my name in a rustle and sigh
The clouds shape my pain as they rush on by
The lakes drink my tears where they fall as I cry
And my heart begins to heal
I dream the dreams that the rivers know
My heart soars along where the eagles go
It longs for the purity of Winter’s snow
And my heart begins to heal
Maine’s natural songs are my solace, my ease
The strength of the mountains the cool of the trees
The timeless wisdom of the infinite seas
And my heart begins to heal
My own perfect haven, my “Songs From the Wood”
To speak of my heartache, to be understood
To be cleansed of my sorrow, love life as I should
And my heart begins to heal
As I feast on your beauty you quiet my soul
You whisper of newness in forests of old
You quietly calm me when I lose control
And my heart can finally heal
Songs From the Wood 