Preface

It never occurred to me.

My inbox is full

Every morning.

I sift and delete,

Read and save.

This morning

I was offered

Walt Whitman’s preface

To Leaves of Grass.

It had not occurred to me

There was a preface.

Leaves of Grass

Always stood

On its own.

No.

Preface there is.

There’s always a preface.

Some are worth considering.

Some not.

Still

There’s always a preface.

Limits...

This is kind of, sort of, a haiku. It contains the idea of one anyway. Limits are meant to be paid attention to, but maybe not religiously followed. Yesterday I moderated the adult forum on forgiveness, then considered the 10:30 service. I heard it from a distance, talking with a friend in the library. Then I considered the annual meeting. This weekend was not a time for large groups of people. I drove home in the snow, happy I had done what I needed to do, happy I had considered the rest, happy to be home.

We all have them.
The question is
How do we live
Within them?

Stronger for it

Yesterday felt like convergence at the beginning the new church year, a waiting for the baby and Second Coming, just as Advent is meant to be, except in real, on-the-ground time.  I stood with three other clergy after church yesterday.  All four of us sat in the pew, by choice, yesterday.  We spoke of what has changed, what is honored now, what seems to have been forgotten.  The new church year has barely hit the ground.

With the new church year

On the ground

I find myself saying:

To myself

To others

To those in positions of power

Small and somewhat greater:

Have you ever considered?

With the new church year

Taking its very first steps

Into new and newer life,

I consider new things

Shored up

By a bulwark of things

Named old.

Have you considered

This very thing

Has been considered before

With perhaps different elements

In perhaps

Different ways?

Have you considered

Perhaps

Connection,

One thing building on another

And just perhaps

Stronger for it?