What’s meant for bad shall turn for good.

Dispel the dark, in light I’m stood.

Set down their spiteful litany,

now trickles through epiphany.

There comes a time when you’ve borne condemnation long enough, from without and within. It must not, does not, define me. I’ve laboured long and hard, and then find I transition unexpectedly – a small crowning moment that comes with quiet wonder. I find I am part of a circle of light held up on the eve of Christmas. I have promise.  I’m going to hold on to that.

Resolving to cut down on toxins

we offer mutual healing bolsterings.

I’ve been consumed and now am purging –

lighter life and love unfurling.

 

A few of us have acknowledged that we’ve been taking in to ourselves too much that is doing us harm. We have agreed to take better care of ourselves, each as they need. Food, alcohol, condemnations…

We’ve lent each other the motivation to take in less and be more. Cheers!

A friend is coming, collar-free,

we’ll have repast and repartee.

Feeding souls and raising spirits

unbuttoned feast of friendships merit.

 

She’s on her way, to not be rector,

come to let us resurrect her

sense of self – which does get buried.

Break the sod! Arise unharried!

Ministering to others full time is hard. Wearing a dog-collar means my friend can be a little choked by the demands on her, and in need of a breather. Ministry comes in many forms, including hospitality – and through it we find ourselves again. I don’t do puddings but I consider this the Sundae best.

Mark the pathways lonely trod

of seer sage and mystic –

shunned yet bearing with their gifts,

first-footing honoured mystics.

 

They weren’t kings, they were magi. Outsiders, foreigners, diviners called by the divine to honour the arrival of everymans unlikely King. They came from ‘afar’ but that may not have simply been a geographical issue. Following a leading may have taken much faith, may have been costly to them. I don’t want to dress them up as kings and give them a mantle of nobility. I want to honour what was already honourable, that they were seen from afar and invited in, just as we are.

When all reflect on what’s been pillaged

will there be focus on God’s image?

People can be robbed of many things, the worst of which is their dignity and self-worth.  We have such capacity for judging and criticising others and shouldn’t really be surprised by it, yet it remains shocking. ‘Othering’ others goes on all the time, but we don’t want to see it when comes from ourselves. I’ve had a bad year of being othered, a particularly scourging experience. Outrage, hurt, and resentment have flowed out of that, and truths have trickled in.

We are all made for goodness, as Desmond Tutu has said. Much as it can be hard to see it in ourselves while we’re hurting, it is often so challenging to see the goodness in others once we have othered them. We’re more likely to gather affirmations of that othering, than seek a new facet of them to gaze on.But it’s there if we’ll dare to look, and it’s there even if we don’t look. It may take time, but looking back I hope we will all see the distortions that fears and pride have wrought in our perceptions, and all find the goodness in ourselves, and what’s mirrored in the othered.