Left big toe

This may sound odd to many, but I have been hobbled with neuropathy since last spring, particularly in my left foot. This afternoon my left big toe moved a little. Party-time!

Sometimes progress

Comes in millimeters

Like this left big toe

I have stared at

For months.

I will it

To move.

Today it did

A millimeter

Mind you

But a millimeter

Counts for something

It shows why

Willing

Waiting

Watching

Are important.

I would not have seen it

Without

Those three things.

Today I did.

Tomorrow is

The left big toe party

We will tie a ribbon

Around it

My son will come

To make dinner.

For Keith

This is for a beloved friend, Keith Raske. We lived down the hall from each other in seminary. He was one of the few people whose ordinations I attended. I found him again a few years ago, doing what he has always done...being Keith. I have a small mandala he painted in a special spot in my house. We will see each other again...this I know.

Oh my friend

You have gone ahead

To scout out the terrain

Of Heaven.

I see you

Bowing to all the people

You knew in this life

In recognition

Of their Holiness,

They bowing

In recognition

Of yours.

I know

Simply know

Earth to Heaven

Heaven to Earth

Is richer

For your presence.

sermon examples

What an interesting world we live in. What comes through for me is often not what comes through for others.

I used to see the world

In sermon examples.

In some ways

I still do

Though I do not

Preach.

The lenses I look through,

The voices I hear

Filter the world

In the strainers

In the mesh

Of Gospel eyes

Gospel voices.

I write

What comes through.

backseat memories

Thanks Kelly Flanagan...for the memories. Years ago, a Siamese cat showed up on the doorstep. We suspect our neighbor was feeding it there. He appeared to be homeless. We adopted him.

Years ago

From the backseat

Came a five year old voice:

What happens

To the animals

Who don’t get adopted?

I know he was thinking

Of the cat

Who showed up

On our doorstep.

This mother

Finally came up

With an answer

As gentle

As truthful

As I could make it:

They gently kill them.

Long silence

In the backseat.

I have the answer

He said.

What is it?

I asked.

We should give them

To all the prisoners

So they won’t be lonely.

My mind conjured up

A cat on every lap.

A cat box

In every cell

Settling

Things are pretty much settled again. I am grateful. The settling seems to go in fits and starts. I'm not sure whether this counts as a fit or a start,

We settle back down

In gratefulness

For being together again.

The daughter

In Scotland

The son

With a new job.

The turtle

Mostly

In hibernation.

The cats

Well the cats

Are as they are

They sleep a lot

Occasionally

They purr

Different tones

For each.

We settle

And here we are

grateful.

Home again

Before they let me go home I had to prove I could walk...even with braces and a walker, I was stunning, Stunning, I tell you. Then they did the "wheelchair exit," The standard "wheelchair exit"

I retreat

From another run

At the hospital.

It feels like football

Though that’s not a sport

I have ever

Followed.

They drenched my body

With antibiotics

Dangled the threat

Of more physical therapy.

I thanked them kindly

Or maybe

Not so kindly.

Here I am at home

With my beloved

The cats

The turtle

He opens and closes his mouth

He says

Blueberries

Blueberries

Blueberries.

He has had his beak trimmed

Thanks to a visit

From my sister.

We are all home.

Original doggie

We all have particularly special things,

Doggie has appeared,

The original Doggie.

My son says

There are two.

Is it the one

Worn out next to the spine?

I assure him

Yes.

Oh

That’s probably the original

He says.

Looking for "I"

Missing letter

Cleaning out my son’s room

There on the bottom

Is the alphabet board.

It is missing an I.

The cleaning continues

Now in search

Of that I.

So many letters to miss

In the room

Of a 29 year old son.

Actually I am proud

It is only one letter.

We wait to see

Whether it will appear

Before we are done

Or whether Goodwill

Will have to sell

An alphabet board

With no I,

Whether some child

Somewhere

Will be unable

To spell

Isthmus

Individual

Or idiom.

We will see

If that I

Emerges.

Pink pig, black cat

Duck lady out the back, black cat in the front

We left the pink pig

Watering can

On the front lawn.

Now there is a black cat,

He rolls in it,

Throws it around

In the snow.

He has adopted us

Or perhaps

He just visits

For the winter.

It is a good thing

We left the pink pig

Next to the front door.

Almost anything

Is a good
Cat toy.

More on the bird clock

The kitten is more relaxed today.

We try the clock

On a top shelf.

The kitten now ignores

The bird calls.

No longer sees

The second hand.

Out of sight

As they say.

Out of earshot

No one

Says.

The kitten

Is sound asleep.

New batteries in the bird clock

My sister has replaced the batteries in all the clocks. Our kitten is now sitting in front of the bird clock.

The kitten heard

The white-throated sparrow.

Now her eyes are trained

On the second hand.

The cardinal

Comes next.

Meanwhile

The second hand

Is worth a watch.

Anything moving

Is worth

A watch.

Propping

Our tweed reindeer has a wobbly neck. Thank goodness my sister is here to prop it up,

The reindeer

Has been propped up

So the head

Does not lean

With its neck askew.

My sister has arrived

From New Mexico.

She props things up

Like reindeer

Like magazines

Like books

Like dishes

Left on the table.

The two clocks

Which no longer run

Will get new batteries

So we can tell time

Wherever

We look.

Epiphanies

Today is the Feast of the Epiphany. It is the Day the Wise Folk left and went home be another way so Herod would not find them. There are so many Epiphanies in our Faith, one after another after another. I often think of them as whirl winds

The whirl wind

Makes its mark,

Leaves behind those things

Which have yet

To be done.

Oh so many things

Yet to be done.

I mark things off the list,

Yet resolutions

Come

Never-ending.

Epiphanies

Are not singular:

One baby in a manger,

One star

In the sky.

The whirl wind

Makes its mark

Yet continues

Never singular

Babies.

Stars.

No gates

I am in the midst of reading a book about all the tiny dialects in the world, and how some believe that Jesus won't come again until the Gospel has been translated into every dialect. I think...Even Yiddish?

Some say

Jesus won’t come again

Until the whole world

Gets the message

And can speak it

In their own words.

I say

I hope

Jesus will come

When it suits him;

When Eden blossoms

And fruits again

And the gates

Are flung open

No

When there are

No gates

Anymore.

Annual letter

It is January 2 and I've written my annual letter to the Bishop. And now my Beloved reads me yesterday's Peanuts cartoon about Snoopy's annual report to the Head Beagle. Clergy friends: Worth reading. "How many cats have you chased?"

I have written

The annual letter.

It explains the year

In unrelated terms

Much of what

 I have done

In twelve months.

Not exactly

A Christmas letter.

No gall bladders here.

No one graduated.

No newly acquired

Cats.

I have never written

A Christmas letter.

And

I left the land

Of parochial reports

Its number of people

Its number of baptisms

Its number of weddings

Ten years ago now

The comparisons

With past years.

Now I write

The annual letter

With no comparisons

Whatsoever.

No one counts the things

I consider counting.

In fact

Everything is always new

Anyway.

R.I.P. Fr. Mulcahey

R.I.P. William Christopher, Fr. Mulcahey.

Once

Someone

(I no longer remember who)

Told me

I reminded him

Of Fr. Mulcahey

On M.A.S.H.

A gentle soul.

I didn’t exactly see it

But I am glad

Someone did.