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Posts Tagged ‘religion’

Hanging Out with the Benedictines

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on June 26, 2026| 6 Comments »


 

                  for Sister Roseann and the Monastic Congregation of St. Scholastica
 
On the left wrist of the nun 
with the silver hair and soft eyes
was a bracelet made by a child.
Small white cubes with black all caps
proclaimed, “NEVER GROW UP.”
With an impish shrug of her shoulders 
she explained she might have written
“NEVER GIVE UP.” And I thought 
how for fifteen hundred years
her order has flourished through
the rise and fall of the Mongol Empire, 
The British Empire, the Aztecs, 
Bart Simpson, Mickey Mouse. 
Has grown through the introduction of zero
as a standalone number and paper money,
gunpowder and windmills and the compass. 
Has seen the creation of moveable type
and the steam engine, has witnessed 
the telegraph and email and bots that answer the phone.
And I felt it inside her, still growing,
the devotion of centuries, the kind of faith 
that lives on past plastic bracelets,
cherry Twizzlers and Instagram, a community
grown in the deep, rich soil of humility, 
simplicity, hospitality, moderation and prayer.
I felt it in her open smile, in the
kind way she held my hand in hers,
in the way she reframed her work
as faithfulness, I felt her trust
that some things continue to prosper
against all odds, this, the gift of never 
growing up, of never giving up, 
of ever growing beyond understanding.

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Walking Past the Old VW Bug at the Car Show

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on September 27, 2019| Leave a Comment »

 

 

And coming closer, I catch a familiar scent

and lean my head in the open window,

breathe in, and I am sixteen again, and Peter

is sitting beside me and The Russians Love

their Children, Too is playing on the tape deck

and we’re singing along, the windows are down

and the night is warm and we’re finding a place

in the dark where we can park and practice ways

to fit our tall thin bodies into the tiny back seat.

And it’s summer. And I love him. And he loves me.

I’m downshifting and he has his hands up my shirt

and we’re laughing and we have no idea yet

just how much it will hurt when we learn

that love is not enough when it comes

to scripture and doctrine and who marries whom.

No, tonight, it’s just me and Peter and the generous

dark and Sting and the backseat just big enough

and the indifferent moon.

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