I Got Kin

January 30, 2011 at 5:44 pm (Parenting Parents, Relationship, Spirituality)
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I GOT KIN
(by Hafiz, from the book The Gift)

Plant
So that your own heart
Will grow.

Love
So God will think,

“Ahhh,
I got kin in that body!
I should start inviting that soul over
For coffee and
Rolls.”

Sing
Because this is a food
Our starving world
Needs.

Laugh
Because that is the purest
Sound.

I read this poem at my father’s funeral as part of my tribute to him.  I read it because it spoke to me as a way to connect my understanding of spirituality with his, and I read it because in some way I couldn’t quite put into my own words, it expressed both my current sorrow and the promise of healing.

Even more recently, though, this poem keeps coming up and wrapping its arms around me, offering me deep comfort.  The kind that finds the gnarliest edges of loneliness and gently bandages them so they can heal quietly in their own time. 

This is a word-salve that asks to be shared, so … here …<offering you the poem> … apply some where you need it most.

The words “I got kin” keep whispering a soothing breeze through my heart:   

  • I got kin … in the scads of siblings and in-laws and niephews who have become that song when I’m starving, that pure laugh when the depth of life (and death) turns into rough static, the song when my heart is starving for the food of connection.
  • I got kin … in every one of you who has experienced loss — of any kind — and kin in those who have also felt the near-ecstatic moment of realizing that the pain *does* let up.
  • I got kin … in every plant that goes through the cycle of growth that includes a necessary quiet time of stillness through winter in preparing for the burst of new life in spring.
  • I got kin … in the intertwining notes of harmony that find the places words can’t reach and bathe them in sunshine.
  • I got kin … in the cat who puts her soft little paw on my shoulder while I write.
  • I got kin … in the energy of the universe (some call it God) that invites my soul over for cinnamon rolls and coffee. 

So Plant.  Love.  Sing.  Laugh … because you got Kin.

(taken on my walk the morning of my father's death)

14 Comments

How Do I Listen?

June 23, 2010 at 8:48 pm (Books, The Writing Life)
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I’ve not spent enough time this week refilling my word pitcher.

When I went to pour from it just now, all I got was a little dust — the last drop of water dried into a rusty ring at the bottom.

So I opened The Gift, poems by Hafiz, and found indeed a gift.  A suggestion for refilling that word pitcher, replenishing my inner sanctuary [pronoun changed by me]:

How Do I Listen?

How

Do I

Listen to others?

As if everyone were my Master

Speaking to me

Her

Cherished

Last Words.

Perhaps my words ran dry tonight so I can instead just listen.  And so I shall.

6 Comments

Anatomy of Love: Tag, You’re It!

February 4, 2010 at 11:36 am (Anatomy of Love, Relationship)
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“I have to wonder what I did wrong… to make you this way…”  Mom said when I came out to her 20-some years ago. 

My response was instant: “Well, if it’s something you did, Mom…thank you… because I love being like this.”

You see, being gay isn’t a curse or a punishment.  It’s not a dark cloud I carry around with me or an unsightly blemish I want to hide.  It’s a gift.  A Gift I firmly believe came directly from God’s hands, God’s heart.

Not because I’m more special than anyone else, or because gay is better than straight. 

No… it’s a gift because being gay forced me to either live completely and authentically, or die. 

There was no inbetween, there is no inbetween, and to me that is a gift beyond any other I can ever receive again.  To be given the strength to live completely, authentically, OPENly — how can that NOT be a gift from God??

Yes, the process to this point hurt like hell (and at times still does), but even if it WERE a choice (which I assure you it is NOT), I’d choose this.  I’d choose Life.  Love.  God (or whatever you choose to call her/him/it).

Consider this poem by Hafiz (from The Gift) – no matter who you are… gay, straight, or somewhere inbetween… no matter who you are, you were tagged to be exactly you.

YOU’RE IT

God
Disguised
As a myriad of things and
Playing a game
Of tag

Has kissed you and said,
“You’re it –

I mean, you’re Really IT!”

Now
It does not matter
What you believe or feel

For something wonderful,

Major-league Wonderful
Is someday going
To

Happen.

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photos by Starla J. King and Jeffery Thomas

(Note: this entry is the seventh in the “Anatomy of Love” blog series – a personal look at the experience and views of a Lesbian Mennonite navigating the unpredictable waters of non-traditional faith and love)

11 Comments

Anatomy of Love: It Happens All the Time in Heaven

January 19, 2010 at 11:52 am (Anatomy of Love, Relationship)
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It Happens All the Time in Heaven* 

It happens all the time in heaven,
And some day

It will begin to happen
Again on earth –

That men and women who are married,
And men and men who are
Lovers,

And women and women
Who give each other
Light,

Often will get down on their knees

And while so tenderly
Holding their lover’s hand,

With tears in their eyes,
Will sincerely speak, saying,

“My dear,
How can I be more loving to you;

How can I be more
Kind?”

It happens all the time in heaven, so why are we so afraid to let it happen here on earth?   

*poem by Hafiz, beloved Persian poet (1320-1389). Poem from The Subject Tonight is Love, translation by Daniel Ladinsky.

*******************************************
photos by Starla J. King

(Note: this entry is the sixth in the “Anatomy of Love” blog series – a personal look at the experience and views of a Lesbian Mennonite navigating the unpredictable waters of non-traditional faith and love)

6 Comments

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