Ramadan

Prayer.

Acts of service.

Humility.

Family.

Fasting.

Seeking God.

Reading sacred texts.

I listened this morning to Muslims

Sharing their memories and feelings

As they celebrate their holy month of Ramadan

I am a Christian 

I do not read and practice the Qur'an

I don't personally know many Muslims

Yet I am drawn to this sacred practice 

It's tenets resonate with my love of Jesus

And his teachings of love, humility and prayer

I know Christians who meet in prayer 

For the conversion of Muslims

During this sacred season

What would happen if their prayers

Turned into solidarity of fasting and prayer

Along side those for whom they pray

I'm just wondering...maybe next year

Nancy Perkins

6/30/16

Some may find this musing offensive or say I'm on a slippery slope. I'm really just feeling like we have our Heavenly Father in way too small a box. I'm not saying we're all the same. I'm saying there are lovely sacred spaces where we could possibly sit together. 

Remnants

Old boards, old doors, old gates and walls

I wonder what lies dormant in your past

To what sights and sounds did you bear witness

What pain and suffering, what dance and song

Whose prayers for deliverance did you hear

What songs of praise or lament

And now I pass by wondering

Where are the souls who lived within

Who mourned their passing

And who left these crumbling walls

To make lives and journeys new

Who laid down with wounds to great to bear

And I walk by in silence

Are there lessons to be learned

Are their gaping wounds waiting for forgiveness 

Longing for a healing

Crying out for mercy and for grace

Whispered prayers clinging to these sad walls

Is there a chance we can redeem the past

Is there hope that can be pulled

From these old boards and doors

Or are we fated to repeat the sins

Of our fathers, who walked away

Never looking back

Summer Verse

Songs of the Birds

The tiny bodies of Carolina wrens
Tremble as mighty song pours forth
Gaudy cardinal has the repertoire
Of a showy operatic tenor
Woodpeckers of various color and size
Carry on a staccato beat of a drum line
Finches and sparrows chatter
Not unlike a classroom of fifth graders
Blue jays scream and scold
Starlings grumble and jeer
Robins cherrio with heads tipped
toward the earth and worms
And my favorite
The soulful call of the mourning dove
Always falls into my heart and soul


Raining...but not raining

I'm walking
It's cloudy but not raining
I hear the sound like rain falling
It's the drops of rain
Held overnight by leaves
On the forest trees
Freed by a gentle morning breeze
To fall further
On to the ground
Raining but not raining


Magnolia Leaves

Magnolia leaves cascade toward the ground
Loosened from limbs by an evening breeze
Their passage through the recalcitrant leaves
Creates music
Rivaling the tune from the wind chime
Hanging on the lowest branch