Breathe...

[Let go.]

We must take hope seriously.

Oh my daughter’s daughters,

            Is my gift of life

                        The first act of violation against you?

I forced you into a world collapsing,

            A world ripping at all sides of your soul.

The choice to take life was not in your hands -

Your lungs had no option,

But to breathe.

Yet

despite your lack of say,

       Dear daughter’s daughters,

the forces of abuse are waiting to pounce –

                        and worse - enticing you to join them.

I bring you into the wars of human experience;

            Every part of you attacked.

I make you learn how to hate,

            As I struggle to love you enough;

            As I fail to love you enough;

            …as I let go of ever being able to love you enough.

[Let go.]

My fear of your apathy

                        Makes me more barren than my poverty...

Yet I take the risk.

                            [Let go.]

My blood runs cold thinking of

            How you will be violated;

            Who you will violate;

            Who you will ignore:

                        My sins in your blood,

                                    Cold as mine.

My love for you

 will not be enough.

[Let go.]

            You will be hurt.

[Let go.]

            You will learn to hurt.

[Let go.]

            You will be hurt again,

[Let go.]

            And again, you will learn to hurt.

I weep for you,

            My daughter’s daughters.

I give you a vessel for your soul,

            Something that brings you inside of time:

                        A prisoner to its forces.
We will try to connect,
             but never fully succeed.

Prepare to be hungry.
Prepare to never be satisfied in this life I made you take.

I cry out for you to please

             prepare for a world that rejects you from the start...

For how will I teach you,

            When I do not know?

From the first breath I push you to take,           

[Let go.]

            Breathe with me.

[Listen.]

            Breathe with me.

[Slow.]

            Breathe with me.

[Let go.]

            Grow with me –

            try,

            with me,

            to be,

–      against all odds –

Something worth breathing for.

For in this life, 

           we must take hope seriously...

Oh my daughter’s daughters,

I am sorry.           

[Let go.]

[Breathe.]

Wall art at Bethlehem. Too beautiful for such an ugly thing!! 

Kindergarten Graduation performance/play that apparently the class came up with. The plot was simply a massacre of Palestinians from Israeli soldiers... all taking place on a stage in front of pictures of brothers who have died.  The whole evening really shook us. Though there were a few numbers of dancing and singing and really beautiful smiling kids, It made so real how children who grow up with guns in their faces and brothers/fathers/sisters in jail, must learn from a young age how to cope and respond in healthy, strong, productive, and sad ways. 


Luke 23:28

- C