A Prayer for Ukraine

I woke and took up your word

And read about the gift you gave

The sacrifice you made to redeem the human race, an endless procession of hapless sinners

One man to save us all

And I stare stunned at the television

Watching war play out before the world

Like it’s just another blockbuster I’m bingeing on

Something to give me a jolt

To make me feel alive

Except it’s no screenplay playing out on my big screen

No calls of “It’s a wrap”, where cast and crew go off to celebrate what they’ve accomplished

While the set is dismantled

No, one man

A real live villain

An aggressive expansionist

A raging thug

Let his fury fly on his unsuspecting neighbors

Desecrating their doorsteps, businesses, and gathering places

With bullets and bombs

Displaying power, wreaking havoc, creating carnage, and inciting fear

And as people flee their homes, their homeland

Looking back in horror and disbelief

Looking forward to confusion and uncertainty

I remember the one man

Not the angry tyrant

But the gentle Saviour, the Almighty God, the Sovereign Lord

And I call out to Him

To explode light into the darkness

To bring the perpetrators to swift justice

To shatter the chaos with peace

To rain down provision and protection

To quell the suffering and grief with comfort, strength, and healing

I pray

It’s all I can do

It’s the best I can do

Thanks for reading! The sunflower is the national flower of Ukraine. The feature pic is a combination and edit of a flower pic of mine with a praying hands from Pixabay. The footer is from Pixabay. Posts come out when I feel like it. 😀 Scroll down to the bottom of the page to follow me or sign up to receive my posts via email. Follow me on Instagram. Take a peek at my Redbubble store Pollyeloquent.redbubble.com (images below) and my clothing design page on Le Galeriste. Thank you for giving me some of your precious time!

Chocolate and Other Notions of Love

Love is not about chocolate

Though it’s a sweet for the soul

And the taste can bring on ecstasy

Love is not about perfume

Though it’s more heady and intoxicating than the finest, most costly scent when it’s new and all-consuming

Love is not about jewels

Though it’s the shiniest thing on earth

If it’s real and true

Love is not about presents

Though it’s about presence

About friendship, thoughtful attention, commitment, and often, sacrifice

Love is not about candlelight, heart-shaped pizzas, sumptuous meals, sentimental serenades, silky, lacy, racy, lingerie, romantic rendezvous, or rapturous intimacy

Though it may include all these things

It’s not a random, mushy, gushy feeling, but a patient, continuous choice

Real love abides in the raw and gritty

Real love stands firm in joy bubbling up and tumultuous trouble

Real love soldiers on through the mind-numbing mundane and the most wretched grief

Real love stays, affirms, celebrates, supports, serves, and forgives

Real love lasts

If you know this extraordinary love

You are blessed above all

Happy Valentine’s Day, my friends! Thanks for reading! The feature pic is a combination and edit of three of my photos. Footer from Pixabay. Posts come out when I feel like it. 😀 Scroll down to the bottom of the page to follow me or sign up to receive my posts via email. Follow me on Instagram. Take a peek at my Redbubble store Pollyeloquent.redbubble.com and my clothing design page on Le Galeriste. Thank you for giving me some of your precious time!

God will not Forget You

For my mother, Sharon Mayforth, in honour of Alzheimer’s Awareness Month.

You may continually misplace your keys

Misfile your favourite recipe

Drop a word or two or three

You may lose all track of time

Or lose your way on your way home

Or not recall you’ve told that story once or thrice before

You may forget to water plants, to feed the fish, or put on pants

Yes, there’s a chance you will forget to bathe or brush your teeth or comb your hair

But more than this, I’d be remiss, if I did not mention that amidst these small and trivial things, much greater matters will give way

You’ll lose your very sense of self, your independence, and your health

Confusion will become the order of the day

You’ll wander through your muddled mind and find the jumbled words and ghost of memories past do not express your needs and is there anyone who understands?

The biggest grief will come when you no longer recognize the ones you love

They will be strangers all

Before you think, if this befall you that you’ve been committed to some special sort of hell

And lose all hope and finally despair

I tell you

God will not forget you

He did knit you in your mother’s womb

He knows you as the artist knows each brushstroke and the finished piece

Your worth is not diminished by diminishing capacities

His love does not depend on you possessing all your faculties

No loss can separate you from the love of Christ

He’s carved you on His hands and feet

Though this may be your final trial

Please know that in a little while

You’ll be the blessed one to see Him face to face

And clarity will dawn

And you will rest in Him, confident that you will not forget again

No

God will not forget you

The feature pic is an edit by me of a pic from Pixabay. Footer from Pixabay. Posts come out when I feel like it. 😀 Scroll down to the bottom of the page to follow me or sign up to receive my posts via email. Follow me on Instagram. Take a peek at my Redbubble store Pollyeloquent.redbubble.com and my clothing design page on Le Galeriste. Thank you for giving me some of your precious time!

Whipped Up

I’m not the center

The world doesn’t stop for me

Doesn’t stop spinning

Even when I’m dizzy and stumbling around

Desperate for a firm place to stand

It rotates mindlessly on in utter disregard for my confusion

It doesn’t care when I’m in crisis

Every time I’m thrown off balance

Every moment I’m without my equilibrium

I can do one of two things

I can lie low and hurl and groan

And let my eyes roll into my head

And die a tiny death ad infinitum

A sure spiral down to an early grave

Or I can ask myself

Whether or not

My world needed

A little bit of shaking up

And hold on

And go for the ride of my life

Feature Pic by me. Footer from Pixabay. Posts come out when I feel like it. 😀 Scroll down to the bottom of the page to follow me or sign up to receive my posts via email. Follow me on Instagram. Take a peek at my Redbubble store Pollyeloquent.redbubble.com and my clothing design page on Le Galeriste. Thank you for giving me some of your precious time! 🙂

The Cry of Christmas

Christmas

For those of us who celebrate the Christ

Is about the incarnation

When the Creator Spirit, celestial, timeless and at liberty, willingly took up our calendar to be contained in soft, pink, fragile flesh on bony frame

When the Everlasting Unborn became the born to die

When the King of kings became a pauper with nothing else to offer but himself, born in a borrowed, smelly stable, wrapped in naught but strips of cloth

When the Almighty God became a weak and wriggling, ineffectual, helpless and dependent bundle crying out

When the Ancient and Omniscient, the Wise and Wondrous Counselor became the new, the innocent, the blank

When the Prince of Peace became the agitated, grasping after just a hand to hold or sip of milk

Inexplicable and curious

This most awkward and unlikely of transitions

Jesus letting go of every shred of sovereign rule and, even, dignity

To come here as a lowly kid

To save us

It makes sense

When He was grown, in ministry

He said we must become like little children

Or we would never see the kingdom

So the incarnation, as the rest of Jesus’ life and death, was meant for us to imitate

We, too, must lay our power down

And look to God, the Father

Mouth agape and arms outstretched

Wearing nothing but our unapologetic need

Or we will never live the life that He intends

What might it mean for us to stop relying on our own inconsistent steam

And run on His immeasurable strength

And recognize that everything falls from His hand

The sustenance to travel through trials and miracles alike

Are we willing to miss out on this most amazing promise of abundant life

This priceless Christmas gift

To maintain our autonomy

Or do we take the risk 

And become a baby, too

Feature Pic by me. Footer from Pixabay. Posts come out when I feel like it. 😀 Scroll down to the bottom of the page to follow me or sign up to receive my posts via email. Follow me on Instagram. Take a peek at my Redbubble store Pollyeloquent.redbubble.com and my clothing design page on Le Galeriste. Thank you for giving me some of your precious time! 🙂

Rush Hour

Today

The snow is falling like it’s in a hurry

Tiny crystalline flakes, bunched together

Jostling each other in the frigid air

Like commuters jockeying for a good seat on the train

Each one making its way insistently down

Only to pile up

Taking its place in the wintry weave

The blanket meant to comfort and rest the earth

Never have I thought of snow as comforting

Until I stood still and watched

Until I sensed the snow’s eagerness

To be about its work

Feature Pic and footer from Pixabay. Posts come out when I feel like it. 😀 Scroll down to the bottom of the page to follow me or sign up to receive my posts via email. Follow me on Instagram. Take a peek at my Redbubble store Pollyeloquent.redbubble.com and my clothing design page on Le Galeriste. Thank you for giving me some of your precious time! 🙂

News Flash: You are NOT Enough

I don’t remember a lot of lack growing up. My parents worked hard to provide for us. We weren’t wealthy, but we had what we needed with some extras, with the exception of socks. I remember having a lack of socks. I regularly, and with no small amount of chagrin, annoyed my sister, stealing her socks, because my sock drawer always seemed to be bare. I don’t remember asking my mother for socks. I’m sure she’d have coughed up the socks, if I’d have expressed my need to her. To this day, I can’t get enough socks and if I had a wad of cash, I’d be spending it on gobs of unique socks.

Mountains are for Climbing

Many of you know, if you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, that I struggle with an eating disorder. You can read more about that here. Lately, with the ongoing threat of Covid and the increased patient load at my workplace (you can read about what I do here), I’ve been succumbing to the urge to rapidly consume the contents of my cupboards, healthy or otherwise. I recently took the important step of booking an appointment to see a professional about my problem. I’ve always been a self-helper. Whenever my behaviours resulted in too many unpleasant outcomes, I would read widely on my issues and adopt new coping strategies. Often, this would produce small, lasting changes, but I’m finally ready to admit that I’ve done what I can and I need another’s perspective and guidance.

The Mountain Climber’s Mantra

Step up

Step up

Watch those roots

Hold your toots

Someone’s boot is

Clipping your heels

Breathe, breathe, step up, step up

Branch in your face, WHAP, tighten up that strap

Take a big ole swig o’ water, breathe, breathe, step up, step up, over that boulder, hug that shoulder

Don’t get slower, be a good soldier, pick up speed, breathe, breathe, step up, step out

Onto a plateau, can’t I sit a spell, inhale a protein bar, still got a ways to go, tackle that scree, breathe, breathe, one step up, two steps back, I might have a heart attack, why did I pack so much gear, SWEAR

Step up, trip up, fall down, get up, dust yourself off, just keep pushing, wind is rushing, nose is running, lungs are busting, sun is beating, sweat is gushing, NO RETREATING, breathe, breathe

step up, step up, when will this stop, can they send a helicopter, NO, for wimps they don’t bother, pretty, snotty PLEASE, WHEEZE, WHEEZE, step up, give up, DON’T STOP, look up

HOLY SMOKES, I’M AT THE TOP

Well, 

That was easy 😀

Posts come out when I feel like it. 😀 Feature pic by Keith Traber. Footer pic by me. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to follow me or sign up to receive my posts via email. Follow me on Instagram. Take a peek at my Redbubble store. Pollyeloquent.redbubble.com. Thank you for giving me some of your precious time!

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Embrace the Chaos

After fashioning

A messy bun

One stray tendril

Lithely slithered down

And curled about my neck

I smiled

And left it 

For I am learning

Not to be afraid

Of disorder

Posts come out when I feel like it. 😀 Feature pic and border by Pixabay . Scroll down to the bottom of the page to follow me or sign up to receive my posts via email. Take a peek at my Redbubble store. Pollyeloquent.redbubble.com. Thank you for giving me some of your precious time!

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