Category Archives: Relationships

Because I LOVE You

Transformation

Because I LOVE you

The revolution begins

Not with violence

But in the most sacred part of a living being

A shift in belief

A consideration of possibilities

A seed planted in the right conditions

An adventure and adaptation

A surrender to truth

A conspiracy of hope.

Equity

Because I LOVE you

When the “them” become we

When there is celebration in diversity

When homogenization is frowned upon

When being different is cherished

When others become us

When we walk ten miles beside them

When we seek to share our spirits

Without fear, without repercussions

When balance is restored to all living beings

Plurality

Because I LOVE you

You can bow your head

Covered or uncovered

You can walk holy halls

With shoes or without

You can pray all day

Or not at all

You can profess your faith

Or you can remain silent

You can go to church

Or you can stay at home

Justice

Because I LOVE you

I will protect you to the best of my ability

I will see you as the human you are

I will not convert you or force feed you

I will be quiet, so your voice is heard

I will walk beside you and stand behind you

I will support your righteous cause

I will encourage your truth

I will honor the authority over your personal autonomy

Generosity

Because I LOVE you

When you are overwhelmed and crying

I will bring comfort and compassion

When you are hungry

I will feed your spirit and your belly

When you are sick or weak

I will spoon feed you broth or lend you my strength

When your heart is heavy with grief

I will give you a haven to wade into the depths

When you are in need of a hand up

I will give what I can, when I can, as often as I can

Interdependence

Because I LOVE you

You are me.

I am you.

No matter which faces you see when you pray

No matter how you show up

No matter what, you are my kin

My blood is filled with your laughter and tears

You may not understand,

But know that I hold no judgment on your heart

I don’t know your hardships or happiness

But I know that you are LOVEd exactly as you are

Despite of and because of everything that makes you, YOU.

I am a Unitarian Universalist

“Because I LOVE you and I obey the Law of LOVE.”

Inspired by Only Fragments

#2715

“it’s because he’s the sun, the source of all light in the universe, and you’re just the moon with no light of your own.“

I have been the sun shining so brightly that you lit up as well. But I was greedy, self-involved, callous to your pleas for your own two feet. I couldn’t hear your voice because mine was too loud and I loved the sound of it more than I did yours. I couldn’t hear your suffering because I believed I was the only one who had a right to be the victim. I forced you to be a martyr for my cause, not yours. I stripped you naked of everything I didn’t like about myself, absorbed your “good parts” as if they were my own. I tipped the balance of justice so that I appeared the one who was rightly outraged. I was repulsed by your actions because they were exactly what I would do if I weren’t so vain to believe I was superior to you. I held your confidence because that was in our agreement. You held mine because that’s who you wanted to be, or rather who “I” wanted you to be. For all of that, I hope you can forgive my recklessness, my rejection, my lack of confidence in who you were born to be. I beg for your grace and mercy that I refused to offer you, or myself, while I preyed on my own foibles as a pathetic excuse for a relationship with you.

Approaching Senior

older person holding an open book near a window

I am too old to be considered youthful

Yet, I’m a child, still wet-behind-the-ears

I’ve lived a life precariously truthful

But still, I’ve yet to see all of my years.

I have been as close to death as dust

But I still don’t know it by its common name

I have gifted dirges to those I’ve loved

A place in my heart they’ve claimed

If I’m blessed to live an entire century,

I hope that I won’t sit alone by the window

Waiting for those I love to learn too late they love me.

I’d languish for their amity, my companion, my shadow

There is a certain reverence to a life lived unfurled

The spiral tapestries of the lessons learned

Woven back upon itself briefly, beautifully curled

Love and joy have always been the life for which I’ve yearned

What Once Was

I know I didn’t fall from grace

But I am here,

Looking in the mirror

Staring at your face

Where once in unison our hearts beat

I couldn’t wait to share

My life stories laid bare

Somehow, now, I feel defeat

The connection that I had

With you has released

The distancing increased

It is neither good nor bad

It is what it was created to be

It’s darker now than ever it was

I cannot feel you in my blood

A monument of a you and I; “we”

Murder

I am repulsed by the weight of my skin

As if my every breath is a sin

Emotional trauma’s affection

Dissociative disconnection

Grappling a height I’ll never climb

For long ago, I was left behind

Every step I’ve made, I’ve done alone

Bitterness in my haunted bones

Illusions of love, of commitment, of joy

Are rotting with lies set to destroy

At times, I believe, I will rise above

That I will know peace of the mythical dove

But the curtain falls and the show is done

And I realize I have never won

I’ve stepped in line with my own path

Which cost me relationships in its wrath

But choices made were neither bad nor good

But all were made from a basic falsehood

That I was never good enough no matter how I tried

So, you see, I murdered her, so that I could live and thrive

Big Bands and Crooners

Trombone sliding around trumpets

Ole blue eyes and Crosby balladering

Loudly enough on the hi-fi to be heard in the kitchen

Cinnamon and nutmeg joined in chorus

Butter whipped with rich brown sugar

Sunshine egg yolks breaking out of their shell

Clouds of flour rising with surprised impudence

and vanilla competing with cocoa

(depending on the recipe)

Blended, folded, mixed, stirred

always in time to the metranome of music

Oven preheated, we hand our offerings into its maw

Patience.

All dishes are washed. All surfaces cleaned.

Attend to the hopeful gifts being transformed

Dusting, vacuuming, beds long made

Wait while the trumpet solo reaches cresendo

Patience.

With the ring of the timer, we engage our success

while Big Bands and Crooners celebrate with us

Soul Pool

Soul Pool

I have existed for eons before I was born

As a descendant of my womenfolk

Who have cradled me within their wombs

Nurturing my spirit they have always known

Just as I know them in my aging, dusty carcass

Animated by their tribal songs that lent me their breath

Extending their pneuma into my mortality

Anointing me with collective wisdom as my inheritance

Courage emblazoned like a scarlet letter;

ushered in with fiercest loyalty

Resilience bestowed as an endowment of hope

Strength of a champion intrinsically passed down

I am born again and again, basking in the immortality

Reveling in the joyful victories of lives well lived

Lamenting the horrors and pains that are birthed;

And rebirthed, and again

I am my mother’s eyes, my grandmother’s faith,

My great-grandmother’s charm,

my great-great-grandmother’s muscle memory

I am because of their willingness to grant me

This Soul Pool in which I float and swim

TAMP: Abbie

Abbie is a dynamic human. I truly admire how she rolls with whatever comes her way.

She walks into a room in a hurricane of glittery animation

Energy pumping through her space

like air so rich it almost feels obscene

Pigpen from the Peanuts,

surrounded by dust,

has nothing on the confetti of joy

that explodes around her with distracted purpose

Sticky notes are posted everywhere

so she doesn’t forget, but

sometimes she does

When that happens,

she merely pauses before redirecting

her vision, her drive, her day

She is a tempest of radiant inspiration

enraptured in her creative personality

Discarded Poem

Every word was engrossingly sincere,

examined almost to the point of microscopic ingenuity

Thesaurus opened, riffled, reflected upon

A collagulation of themed ideas

distilled into a rhythmic chorus

whose intention was to spark

depths of emotion, connection, and understanding.

It was a labor of ultimate love, tenderness,

A hybrid beauty without flaws.

“It’s good. I like it.” He said flatly;

returning to the video game without pause.