Blessed are the poor

" The poor man

is not disgraced by poverty

For mankind attains ... glory from penury.

Gold and silver are the glory of the rich,

But the poor have inward repose. "

                                           Shaykh Sa'adi Shirazi

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It is interesting how the well off in America

Love to shame the poor

Moochers, Lazy, Stupid, Unmotivated,

There seems to be no end of labels that can be applied

No end to the strategies that can be used

To minimize, diminish, even oppress the vulnerable

Why do we feel the need to do it?

It is simply a matter of creating a “pecking order”,

pushing others down so we can feel bigger and stronger?

It is a way to assuage our guilt, for our own affluence,

Or for our role in creating the dynamics that make others poor?

How else does a CEO who makes multiple millions a year

Justify failing to pay a living wage to the worker he/she relies upon?

We have always had a complex relationship with wealth

I like having money, and the things money can buy

I am certainly not poor, although I have had moments when I was close

But even then I had a safety net, and never believed I would be without a home, without food

But for so many that is not the reality

They work, they struggle

The scrounge for food and clothing

They do everything they can

But the wages are too lower

The opportunities, even though they look for them, are too few

Many of them have been at a disadvantage since they will children

Poor diets, families that did not prize education, no resources to pay for and education

Surrounded by violence, legal issues, and so many other adversities

We cleverly call them Adverse Childhood Events

But they are real, and basic

And if you experience them you are at risk

For cancer, obesity, failure in school, encounters with the law,

The children of poverty grow into poverty

Not because they are lazy

Not because they or their parents are stupid, or have grown up in a culture of dependence

But because they started from a place from which

In America

Yes, in America

There was little chance of recovery

This is the great American failure

The great American sin!

We not only do not have justice

We do not have the kind of equity that allows people to succeed

We had it once

But the rich have taken control

And so that they might stay rich, and get richer

They have made chosen to use and oppress the poor

And neglect the vulnerable

All for a few dollars more

That they don’t need

But here is the joke!

Jesus understood it!

“Blessed are the poor”

Even the poor can have, and often do have,

Rich souls

And the rich?

“It is harder for a rich man to enter the Kingdom (a place where they valued and celebrate justice and equity) than it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle

Perhaps

We need to rethink things?

awful thoughts

“I thought such awful thoughts that I cannot even say them out loud because they would make Jesus want to drink gin straight out of the cat dish.”

                                                                                       Anne Lamott

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There are days

When I just can’t handle the news

Can’t abide the hate

Can’t respect those seekers of wealth, who make money more important that people

There are days when everyone is an idiot and an asshole

Really!

And there are days when, in my bully brain,

The biggest idiot and asshole is me.

Ah, my sweet God of love

How you must shake your head

And wish

That I could seem look for what is good

And real

And positive

In others

And in myself

This is the grand paradox that can drive us to drink

That the one who accepts us and loves us as we are

(although this one does not necessarily like where we are, and may be determined to change us)

Is the same one who asks us to accept and love those around us

Even those we hate.

So Mr Trump

So too, signers of the Nashville Statement

So too, those who would throw the vulnerable under the bus

So too, the old guy looking at me out of the mirror

You are loved

As much as possible by me

A whole lot

By

God

foolish losers

“You can either practice being right or practice being kind.”

                                                           Anne Lamott

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It takes a lot of work to be right!

To work out all the formulas

In just the right way

So that you have all the answers

To put yourself in that position of power

Where you can look down at others

Those fools

Those losers

Those sinners

And pronounce them less

Pronounce them sinful

Pronounce the excluded

It takes more work to realize your own faults

Your own blind spots

To realize that you too

Are a foolish loser

A sinner

Who has no more claim on God than anyone one else

(which means no claim at all)

But are merely one on whom God has staked a claim

Of love and acceptance

IT takes more work to be kind to that flawed, miserable beautiful you

Than to pretend righteousness

It takes more work, to accept, and love and care for,

That one who fundamentally

In so many ways,

Is just like you

It takes so much work

To be

kind

One step

“One step is better than no steps.”

― Rebecca Brockway quoting 14-year-old son Carlino

____________________________________________

We say it so many times

One step at a time

Left foot, right foot, left foot, breathe

The reality is

For all our plans

And all our fears

For all our hopes

There is only this

The next step, the next choice

So many things try to pull our attention away from

That one step

Our feelings, which we judge

Our thoughts, which are often unhelpful, and even devastating

But if we think about that next step

Just that one!

If we step away from our unhelpful brain

And pay attention

That next step can take us

Closer

To where

To whom

We want to be

This morning was difficult

This day was difficult

My mind hated me

And my body was worse

So I just kept taking steps

One step at a time

Left foot, right foot, left foot, breathe

And I did what I cared about

I walked my dog

And taught a class

And saw people doing amazing things

Learning, growing

Caring for one another

Left foot right foot

And my heart soared

Left foot breathe

Sometimes one step is all you can manage

But one step tends to lead

To another

dust

“But most days,

I wander around feeling invisible.

Like I'm a speck of dust

floating in the air

that can only be seen

when a shaft of light hits it.”

                                            Sonya Sones,

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Sometimes I feel as substantial

As a speck of dust

Something separated from the earth

Not so much set free

As cast adrift

Disconnected

Where does this place of isolation come from?

Why is it that I struggle to find a place to land,

Where I belong

Where I feel “in place”?

Is that I am propelled by the wind?

It is that people always brush off the dust?

Or is it that I am simply unable to

Let go of those things that cause me to strive, and protect

And close off

Those things that keep me detached

And isolated

A speck of dust

Floating on air

Belief

“If your body is screaming in pain, whether the pain is muscular contractions, anxiety, depression, asthma or arthritis, a first step in releasing the pain may be making the connection between your body pain and the cause. “Beliefs are physical. A thought held long enough and repeated enough becomes a belief. The belief then becomes biology.”

               Marilyn Van Derbur, Miss America By Day: Lessons Learned From Ultimate Betrayals And

                                                     Unconditional Love

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There are days like today

When everything hurts

And what doesn’t hurt doesn’t work

There are days when my whole body hurts

And my mind hurts

And my heart hurts

And my soul hurts

Oh!

Yes, I know how to manage and control it all

And manage it and control it I do

But it can still be a lonely place

Where you breathe and meditate

Where you walk, and take pictures

And just do what you care about

But long

For someone who seems to care

Someone to touch

And be touched by……

I know my pain is physical

And mental

And emotional

And spiritual

And it goes with me

Daily

Into the places I go

It goes with me as I do what I care about

And how my day goes,

Depends on how I think about things

And I chose

To think

I can

__________________________

My time is spent working with people who struggle with pain at

The Center for Optimal Living

Persistent Pain Program

Blessed are the healers

“This is the kind of Friend

You are -

Without making me realize

My soul's anguished history,

You slip into my house at night,

And while I am sleeping,

You silently carry off

All my suffering and sordid past

In Your beautiful

Hands.”

                             Hafiz

______________________

Blessed are the healers

Blessed are those who find a way

To take away the pain of others

Those who accept, rather than merely tolerate

Those who forgive

And care

Who sneak up on others

Unawares

And gently

Touch their lives for the better

Blessed is the Lord

For above all others

This god who is love

Finds us

And when we least expect it

Carries away that which

Which is limiting and harmful

In beautiful

Sacred

hands

Bending history

“Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

                                                           Robert F. Kennedy

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In a time like this

When those with the most power

Refuse to stand up for justice

Refuse to act with true compassion

Neglect the vulnerable

And Support and even enable racism, hate and greed

It is difficult to believe

That we can bend history

Difficult to believe, that I, an aging, tired

Small church pastor in a remote corner of Oregon

Can do anything about the pervasive injustice that

 Permeates our land

But that does not mean that I don’t try

There are words to be spoken

Words to be written

There are actions to be taken

No, I probably will never influence a congress person

But I can listen

I can care

I can encourage, and forgive

I can be generous

The ripples I make are so small

So very small

But if you make your own ripples

Perhaps together…..

perhaps

Stupid Things

“When we struggle to change ourselves we, in fact, only continue the patterns of self-judgement and aggression. We keep the war against ourselves alive.”

               Jack Kornfield, A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life

________________________________

I do enough stupid things in a day

To last a life time

Some of my errors are massive

I get tired

Depleted

Empty

And then I act, talk, behave stupidly

Sometimes hurting myself

Sometimes hurting others

And when I screw up

I am the master of self condemnation

I make an art of it

Truly

But here is the thing

Most of my stupidity emerges out of a sense of deficit

Of “not being enough”

And with this as a back drop I act in ways I hope

Will make me look bigger, or bring me relief

But which make me small, and make things worse

And I only become smaller

And more in need

I lose

And sadly I usually don’t become better

I just get entrench in further attempts to compensate

For my deficit

Sometimes you just have to let go

Sometimes we just need to step away from the brain.

And end the war against ourselves

Lets get loose

Let's get loose

with

compassion.

Let's drown in the delicious

ambiance of

love.”

                                            Hafiz

_________________________

What can I say?

There are too many people rattling around the universe

Minimized

Excluded

Judged

Hated

Oppressed

Suppressed

To many people who are hungry, homeless

Ill

Struggling with demons we can only imagine

There are some who think this is just fine

And who in fact would make it worse

Classifying real people as

Garbage,

Refused

Junk to be thrown away

Used and discarded

There are some who think that all that is important is power and wealth

But if we gain power and wealth

And leave anyone behind

Anyone

Simply because they are not rich and powerful

We fail

We create inequity and injustice

A radical disparity

That eventually

Will rend and destroy

Hearts, and mind

And souls

And our country

So Let's get loose with compassion.

Let's drown in the delicious

ambiance of

love

what do we have to lose?

it comes naturally

“I am selfish by habit, but sacrificial by nature. Therefore, I’d be wise to develop the habit of following my nature.”

― Craig D. Lounsbrough

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It is in our nature to be selfish

Or so I hear

Natural to be protective,

Natural to grasp

And hug all things to ourselves

Natural to look at others with suspicion

And to hate what we believe threatens

But we are created in the image of God

And God is, in spite of our horribly distorted views of God

Sacrificial

Creative

Life Giving

Compassionate

Caring

Nurturing

Sustaining

And willing to do anything

For those who are loved

Which for God

Is everyone

So perhaps it is natural to be sacrificial

And

Creative

Life giving

Compassionate

Care

Nurturing

Sustaining

And anything else

Habitual distortion

Taught by our culture

Just, perhaps 

The Owls Sing

in the early morning

as the sun struggles to awake

and the sky lightens slowly

into red haze

two owls sing

haunting notes floating through the trees

in red gray dawn

insistently

they call

sending chills perhaps

through the inhabitants of the forest

singing perhaps about the hunt

or even love

until silently they leave their perches

and swoop silently

through the trees

into

deep silence

Teach your children well

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

                                                                        Nelson Mandela

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How do we teach people to hate?

Seriously

How do we do it

I watch the little kids in the play ground

All colors, all shapes all sizes

Playing

Together

Picking each other up  Getting from here to there

Together

How we do manage to go from that

To shields

And slogans

And baseball bats

And cars

And guns

How do we go from that to turning children away at our border

Because,

Just because they might be an inconvenience to us

Or because of the slight possibility they may someday do harm?

Would they do harm if welcomed with acceptance, and lover,

Rather than distrust and hate?

Somewhere along the way

Something is added

Something is taken away

And we are left with hate filled faces

And angry eyes

And mouths that curse

And people dying on the street

So we must teach love

And it must come from the President

And the Congress

And the police

And all those in power an authority

But it doesn’t

And it must come from the pulpit and pew

But it often doesn’t

And it must come from teachers

And parents, and grandparents

Even brothers and sister

If it won’t come from the top

It must come from the bottom

Perhaps that is the only place from whence it can come

And perhaps

It is not adults teaching children well

It is children teaching adults

What the divine image looks like

Before it is blurred, eroded, destroyed

It looks like love