a big mistake

Every day I make a mistake

I allow my pain to turn to anger.

 

Pain is a powerful thing.

The pain I feel in my body, daily is a real thing!

The rebuilt shoulder that wakes me up 5 times a night.

The overall body pain that seems to come with being 70.

 

I carry that pain.  It makes my sleep restless,

it goes with me when I leave my bed,

it hangs around all day,

like an adolescent on a street corner,

and returns to bed with me at night.

 

I would love to think I am stoic, but then some little thing goes wrong.

I drop something (another new affliction),

I stub my toe,

something, anything unwanted happens

and I explode

sending innocent cats scurrying for cover and

the dog wondering what he did wrong.

 

And it is then I know, that I am carrying my pain

and allowing it to become anger

 

I carry my spiritual pain too.

My pain for what is happening to the world, and in the world.

I see the fear filled faces of people in Afghanistan.

I see the hopeless eyes of the poor person on the American street.

I see the political machinations of the political and religious right with its

lust for power, and its desire to impose its will on all.

I hear the lies from the pundits, and experience hate as it oozes from Facebook,

 

and I carry it

 

I and as I do, all to often I let it turn to anger

But it is not a righteous anger!

It is an anger that is hot and can be destructive.

I answer, all too often, with harsh and cruel words.

 

I respond by losing sight of the imago die

the presence of the Sacred in the other.

 

It is OK to feel pain at a evil

It is OK to be disturbed, and perhaps, it is even OK

to move toward anger.

 

But it is what we do with those feelings that matter.

 

We can not sit silently by, and watch

 

There is a time to speak up.

A time to mobilize.

A time to vote.

 

But we cannot, in anger

become what we fight. 

 

People who are cruel and hurtful. 

 

Instead, as has been suggested, we need to work at “overcoming this evil with good.”

 

We must follow the path of being people for others,, all others

We must create equity and justice

We must take care of the vulnerable

We must use power for the common good. Not just our tribe

We must control guns

We must deal with climate change

And fight for universal health care,

And more.

 

It is in fighting FOR these things, with the weapons of love and compassion

that we challenge the politics of hate and divisions.

 

There is work to do

Our pain compels us to act

But let us be careful how we live

Not as unwise but wise (for the days are evil)

 

Let us follow the path of the one who humbled himself

And served

And was obedient to death

to the rule of Love