Category: Spiritual Journey Thursday

Spiritual Journey Thursday – Respect

Denise Krebs10 Comments

Thank you, Linda, for hosting this Spiritual Journey Thursday today. I saw the word respect on the prompt calendar, and it was on my mind when I saw this recent post by Carlos Whittaker, introducing himself to his new followers:

 

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A post shared by Carlos Whittaker (@loswhit)

He explains about his Instagram account, that it is a place of hope, yet it’s not a “feel good” account. He gave this advice for his followers when they interact with each other over a hard topic:

“just show up here with this phrase inked on your soul…
Don’t stand on issues…
Walk with people…”

I have been thinking of these words all week because I see some friends and family traveling down paths of conspiracy theories. How can I walk with them respectfully? How can you believe such foolishness? I want to shout. Sometimes the seemingly-crazy ideas are all tied up in religion and God-belief too, so that is troubling and confusing.

I wrote a poem called a double golden shovel, inspired first by Linda and a “clunker line” poem she wrote with one of my lines and this recent post by Kim Johnson. I wrote the following poem as advice to myself. I find it natural to do one of two things when people have ideas I don’t respect:

  1. I become impatient with and disrespectful of the person.
  2. I just walk away and ignore them and their bad ideas.

But as Carlos suggests, there is another way — “with this phrase inked on your soul…Don’t stand on issues…Walk with people…”

Respect Advise to Me

Don’t expect that respect comes easily. With–
stand the temptation to blame this
on others who “get tired, keep on tryin'” (to borrow a phrase).
Issues of  r-e-s-p-e-c-t  aren’t solved by getting beliefs inked.
Walk in the footsteps of others. Be fully on
with empathy. Think of all people, not only your
people. Open wide the part that may reach others–your home soul.

Then after I read the two quotes together at the beginning and end of these lines, they seemed backwards. I would have preferred to have them the other way around, so I tried again. It was an interesting exercise, with very different possibilities for where the poem could go. There are also some difficult pairs when doing a double golden shovel, with word couplings like “Don’t this.” However, it was time well-spent getting me thinking about how to respect those I desperately disagree with.

Respect Advise to Me, Take 2

With new urgency I listen. Don’t
this-and-that and what-about to justify your stand.
Phrase of respect emblazoned on
inked chest doesn’t fix hatred issues.
On empathetic legs of grace I will walk
your road of pain and humanity. In peace, with
soul-searing hope, I will touch the hearts of people.

Spiritual Journey – Nurturing Our Summer Souls

Denise Krebs14 Comments

Thank you, Carol, for hosting the monthly Spiritual Journal Thursday this week. Her post is fully of breathing deeply, enjoying and being refreshed by nature’s bounty. Be sure to visit her post to read her reflections and summer joy.

Carol asked us to describe “the art of summering” for this month’s post. I’ve not often been one for artfully summering. I usually have a whole lot of things on my to-do and to-go lists, and I get myself very busy. This summer my list has nowhere to go, but much to do, including:

Teaching

  • virtual summer camp with church children
  • tutor a new student to help him get ready for next year

Organizing

  • begin organizing my digital photos
  • organize and transfer ownership of many school Drive documents
  • start a regular organize-a-closet-or-cupboard-or-two-each-week schedule
  • transfer my teaching credential to California
  • finish the portfolio for my long drawn-out TESOL certificate

Learning

  • learn some stories and illustrations for two online trainings
  • study Spanish lessons on Duolingo

Reading

Writing

  • several blog posts a week for the writing groups I’ve joined
  • Teacher’s Write, reflecting, writing, renewing with Kate Messner

So, having that list so long and detailed concerns me a bit that I will get too busy or fail; it doesn’t make me think of living artfully. While I wrote that list above, I was reminded of a blog post I wrote last year from a prompt on The Isolation Journals. The prompter reminded us to write a to-feel list first before writing a to-do list, letting the to-feel list guide our to-do list.

I have been neglecting my to-feel list, so I stopped today and considered what I want to feel this summer.

  • grateful
  • hopeful
  • joyful
  • respected
  • peaceful
  • contented
  • interested
  • empathetic
  • revolted at wrongs and injustice

I think that is a good start, and I see that many items on my to-do list can serve these feelings. I took time this week to go outside and write. Even in this really sweltering heat, it can help us feel more deeply, pray more earnestly, and remember what is most important. This small poem was inspired today by the trees.

Trees with poem -- Consider the flowers and trees The ones that don’t labor or spin But live in beauty on the breeze Here today, then gone again May these sweet trees inform, and my faltering faith, transform ~Denise Krebs from Matthew 6:28-30

Consider the flowers and trees
The ones that don’t labor or spin
But live in beauty on the breeze
Here today, then gone again
May these sweet trees inform,
and my faltering faith, transform

~Denise Krebs based on Matthew 6:28-30

Spiritual Journey Thursday – Gratitude

Denise Krebs11 Comments
Spiritual Journey Thursday for June 2021, hosted by Ruth

My one word for 2021 is Gratitude. In 2021 my goal was to say thank you more often–to God and to people.

I wrote about it here and here, and this poem in January with Stacey Joy and the Open Write group at Ethical ELA.

One Word 

Gratefully
I open the letter
ever-flowing and
breathed by you

Gratitude
for love,
life,
learning

Gratefully
I sit at the seashore
and chew on the manna

Gratitude
for sustaining,
up-ending,
building

Gratefully
Gratefully
Gratefully

Welcoming the
flow of justice,
ever-flowing justice

I started this Spiritual Journey Thursday post the other morning because I wanted to join in this monthly group that Margaret Simon had told me about, and that Ruth is hosting this month. This Gratitude post was on my mind when my husband said something sweet today.

I made Mexican food for lunch–fajitas, black beans, homemade salsa and tortillas. It was yummy. Then, soon after we ate, I needed to get ready for a tutoring session.

When he realized it was time for me to get on my Zoom meeting, he began to put away leftovers and do the dishes, saying, “I’ll finish this lunch project now–with a heart full of gratefulness, taste buds dancing in my mouth, and a full tummy.” (I took a minute to jot it down!) This is just one snapshot of this man who has been a role model of gratefulness during our marriage.

Gratitude doesn’t come quite as easily for me, but I’m practicing this year. That’s why it became my one little word. This Epiphany tree, which I put up on the day after the insurrection on January 6, continues to light up my house this June and probably will all year!

The painting of my one word Gratitude is there, as well, to remind me to say thank you–for an amazing husband, our 38th anniversary coming up, God who forgives me in my selfish sufficiency, health care providers, scientists, governments trying their best to solve a novel crisis with limited resources, my health and home, vaccinations, my fine black gel pen, a new president for the U.S., my blog and being able to write and record thoughts and feelings, Kindle books read and waiting to be read, healthy food, clean water, my daughters and their husbands, Jesus who makes life a joy, and so much more.

 

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