The Light

Procrastination
The lack of motivation
Life walks right on by

Woe is great anger
Filling our hearts with sadness
And desolation

Tears press their way down
Cheeks scarred by years of hardship
Forming pools of stone

Death awaits us all
Neatly we prepare our clothes
To dress our remains

Depression is near
Anger and isolation
Give in to despair

Yet Jesus is there...

Jesus is the light
Standing near...close to our hearts
Waiting to show love

Survive the Lie

A quarter moon sits in the sky as day turns to dusk. Deprivation sings of starvation. People are hungry, food insecure. The House of Love Soup Kitchen lights the way providing respite in the midst of hardship. Volunteers are busy heating up food and preparing for dinner. The newspaper man passes out papers filled with reports about the occupations and demonstrations all over the country against gluttony.

Occupy Wall Street…occupy Oakland…occupy Washington D.C….sit in…march…sing in opposition to avarice and greed. Occupy and protest food insecurity and a collective insensitivity to the needs of the people. March against mortgage foreclosures in an economy where jobs are no longer assured. Sit in and protest incomes disappearing, finances changing for the worse. Sing out against a shortage of medications as desolation and depression loom on the horizon. Occupy Wall Street…occupy Oakland…occupy Washington D.C….sit in…march…sing in opposition to avarice and greed.

Faceless banks, insurance companies in their anonymity, and bell ringing brokerage firms confirm their solidarity and unite in their fight to hoard profits and maintain control of the wealth simultaneously choking the health of a nation killing the aspirations of the inhabitants.

Clients start filing in, gathering, socializing, enjoying a brief reprieve from daily tribulations. Hope infuses the atmosphere encouraging all to persevere through trying times and circumstance. Joy speaks faith into hearts sparking inspiration and motivation to seek the source and strength of life.

Dinner is served.

Listen Up America!

Somebody’s been making money
Off of you and me
Like all the insurance companies
And the entire medical bureaucracy
Hospitalization and medication
Is not always an option for the working poor population
Listen up America!
The right to medical coverage should certainly be
A basic right that is guaranteed

The cost of medicine is sky high
It’s no wonder many of the working poor give up and die
Can’t afford a hospital stay
That costs thousands of dollars each and every day
The cost of medication is mind boggling
For those with no insurance and financially struggling
Listen up America!
The right to medical coverage should certainly be
A basic right that is guaranteed

Low paying jobs with no medical insurance
Families suffering with no sign of deliverance
Child with a bone disease cannot afford medication
Another dies from a tooth with an abscess infection
Children with asthma get no relief
When parents can’t afford the treatment they need
Listen up America!
The right to medical coverage should certainly be
A basic right that is guaranteed

Medical coverage in this land
Has not been for every man
One good illness and a person’s wiped out
Times become hard without a doubt
Lose the job…car repossessed
Life’s a mess filled with stress
Listen up America!
It’s time for a change!

Hold On

Hold on to dreams
Even if it seems
the light is no longer shining bright

Hold on to hope
Even if it’s hard to cope
as tears flow and you stumble around in the dark

Hold on to peace
Even if violence doesn’t cease
and gun shots continue to ring out in the night

Hold on to compassion
Even if empathy has been rationed
into bits and pieces and put away for safe keeping

Hold on to love
Even when the fire of
passion has burned down to glowing embers

Hold on…
Hold on...
Hold on...

Happiness Is...

Happiness is
A suspended moment in time
Caught up on a moonbeam
Shimmering over the ocean forming a pathway of escape
From the reality of what is…

Happiness is
The orange, the pink, and the red hues
Of a never failing sunrise
Stretching forth in peace and solitude across the horizon
Heralding a new day…

Happiness is
A child’s excitement
Captured in capsules of love
And released into space racing with the wind
Creating and generating a new well being…

Happiness is
Enchantment lighting dark places
Sparking the imagination
To bloom into a field of wildflowers
Allowing fantasy to run free

Happiness is
The heart of mankind beating the drum of unity
Seeking the pulse of a people
With voices lifted in harmony
Singing the song of difference…
…

God is Above That!

A beacon light shines through the nebulous conditions of the present inviting all to come. The House of Love Soup Kitchen, blessed by a host of angels is nurturing, restorative and compassionate. It is open every Tuesday from 6-8pm ready and willing to serve.

Starvation walks in ravenous seeking sustenance for hunger pangs…vexation vibrates sending forth rays in search of solace…financial distress stops by to stretch disappearing dollars with a free meal…the homeless search out a momentary refuge…addiction stops by for a bite to eat…

Laughter and chatter socialize in anticipation of another Tuesday evening…

free food
free clothes

Clients quietly slip in preparing for voluntary Bible therapy prior to the meal. Stories of aggravation conquered by calming spirits…the taste of cigarettes dulled to extinction…guns picked up then put down…abusive relationships take a new turn…God’s power received in the midst of incarceration…crack gets smacked down in the rebirth of a new soul…reborn…reborn…reborn to become a child of the King with a new song to sing!

Demons of darkness
God is above that!
Death and heartache
God is above that!
Poverty
God is above that!
Wall Street greed
God is above that!
Eviction notices
God is above that!
Homelessness
God is above that!
Violence
God is above that!
Sickness and pain
God is above that!
Disability
God is above that!

God’s praises reverberate off the walls as a line forms in anticipation of empathy and thoughtfulness being served with a good wholesome meal.

Hunger

Power infuses the setting. Positive energy drives synergy to connect to the wings of healing. The House of Love Soup Kitchen fed 109 people this past Tuesday. People are suffering from food insecurity. Some literally have no food or income to purchase food while others are trying to stretch their food budget from week to week or month to month depending on how they get their money. I’m retired and have become a month to month recipient of monies and by the third week of the month…uh-oh. There ‘s mortgage or rent to be paid; if you’re fortunate enough to have a car then car payments, gas, insurance and if you don’t have a car…the cost of public transportation looms on the dawning of each new day. Oops got to keep the lights on and gas for heat and cooking; let’s not talk about creature comforts such as cable and telephones. To make a long story short…there’s not much left over for food.

I enjoy volunteering at the soup kitchen. The hour before dinner we have Bible study which in reality has become Bible therapy. Back in February we took a survey of what other services the clients would like to see offered at the soup kitchen. Bible study was high on the list. It takes place an hour before dinner is served.

Chattering voices are a backdrop to anticipation of the elevation of the spirit…transparency begins connecting hearts to the Word of God climbing on the back of hope galloping in the wind…flying high riding in search of the Source.