Ash Wednesday

Today I knelt to watch the genuflection of the honeybee.

Her little face was buried in the holy flurry of new spring,
legs coffers of gold, weighted with promise.

Perhaps a hundred times she dove into the crocus,
dove, rose,
dove, drank,
dove, nuzzled out the savors of glory,
dove, wings beating with relish,
dove, hovered, unable to resist such bounty
dove, enveloped among the indigos,
silk upon silk.

If her tiny chest beats not wild with praise at such a hymn,
mine will beat for us both,
for men throw branches upon dirty streets shouting, “Make way,”
when we have no such intentions at all.

Yet, the Messiah rides the earth on the back of a donkey,
and on the stripes of a honeymaker.

Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest!

Morning Prayer

Lord, bless my friends this morning with the wisdom of four-year-olds.

May they maximize all yawns and stretches to the utmost reaches of their spines.

May they ask for snuggles and receive them.

May they insist on a particular blue cup and a flourish of underpants that render them invincible.

May they gasp over snow.

May they ask if today is finally the day we get to plant the garden.

May they sing sitting on their toilets, and contrive sound effects fitting for the transportation of the mundane.

When they are hurt, may they sit and cry a little honest cry. Then may they rise whole and healed, forgiving, sliding down stairs on their bottoms and laughing because all descents to earth go, "Thump, thump, thump."

May they eat chocolate for breakfast. Just a little.

If their hair is sticky uppy, if their socks don't match, if they have food on their faces, and if sometimes they mess their pants, let them not be so distracted by these banal details that they miss dragons in the woods and sailboats in the clouds.

May they beg to go outside until they get there.

May they dream about what they want to be when they grow up and chase it.

May they awaken -- smelling, hearing, seeing, touching, tasting the whole world anew.

May they play with paint, and markers, and notes, and words, and stacking blocks, and bubbles, and plastic crowns, and every such liturgy and sacrament suited to artists, and singers, and dancers, and makers of tall towers and good rhymes.

May they jump into the arms of God as blithely as beauty never doubting love.

Amen.

Reformatting blog

Hey folks,

I've been needing to tidy up my blog formatting for a while, and I finally started tackling it this week. LBL will probably be on and off the web until it's finished.

Also, I removed all of my old posts. Over the next week or two, I will slowly add most of them back. If you are looking for something particular, it will probably be live again before long. If not, message me, and I'll send it to you directly.

See you soon!

Becca