Today’s Word from Pastor Jim…
Author Kate Bowler reminds us that there is no cure for being human. On occasion, the inescapable human condition leaves us with loss, grief, tears, silent graveside visits, and empty chairs at the table. Dust, water, star stuff, the elements come together for a miraculous season called life.
…
We spent the morning sipping our coffee, laughing and crying, mostly crying, at the Seabiscuit Bakery. I drove back to my office, brick and mortar, that will someday have a new occupant. Something was off. The gift and the urgency were noticeably absent. I don’t write poems, but the words long dormant inside of me waited for release.
It didn’t seem right.
The cars were passing through the intersection,
The left turn arrow flashed green,
A cloud slipped by overhead,
the song on the radio remained unchanged from decades past.
It didn’t seem right.
They scurried into the grocery store,
The mailbox was filled with pulp and ink ready for recycling,
A bird moved through blades of grass looking for a snack,
It didn’t seem right.
Did they not know?
Could they have missed the news?
Would frivolous weekend plans go on as scheduled?
It didn’t seem right.
Time stopped when she died, did it not?
The road ahead suddenly is unfamiliar,
Against my will, life reset,
but the reset would prove impotent to fill the void,
— to span the chasm of loss.
It didn’t seem right.
Did I dream it all?
Does memory trick me?
Does flesh and blood grow cold,
leaving dazed corpses behind, warm with grief?
Can this orb continue its journey through space,
spinning on, as if it was not true?
It didn’t seem right.
It doesn’t feel right.
How can life resume as if it never happened?
Will I ever feel right again?
…
There is no cure for being human. We share our humanity. It is an exclusive club in the universe, those whose destiny is to live, to die, and to rise.
The mystery is beyond us.
One day closer,
Pastor Jim
