Stop, and just be

"Presence is the naked language of union, of being lost and found in the face of the other, or in Jesus,

the very breath of the Other... All you can do is stay connected.  We don't know how to be perfect, but we can stay in union"    . Richard Rohr

"If you remain in me and I remain in in you, you can ask for whatever you want and you're going to get it."   (John 15:7).  Jesus

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It is all so simple

in its magnificent complexity

It is all so easy

and the hardest thing

we ever try do

ah yes

it is confusing God

we want to be good people

better people

your people

and we try so hard

we learn the rules

we perform the rituals

we put on our spiritual masks and

seek to fool others, ourselves, even you

we deny ourselves

we immerse ourselves in goodness

we try

and work

and fail

it doesn't seem to work

we struggle

we feel alone

so very alone

we do what we would not do

and do not do what we would do

worse

we are not who, we are not what, we would be

you must look at us lord

and chuckle a little

knowing that we have it so wrong

but finding it amusing that we try so hard

perhaps it is only after we have exhausted ourselves

that you gently say

"stop it all

stop it all you Martha's

and Stephen's and (insert your name here)

Stop it

and come and just sit with me for a while

and let us find each other

let us be just be

together

and then, maybe then

you will find that for which you have looked

and worked

so hard”