Month: January 2021

poetry

Like With Cats

by Sarah Lenora GingrichLeave a Comment on Like With Cats

Like with cats

Give up the chase

But rather be

The one that offers love

And has made

A pact with self

To never weigh on the scales of the heart

The measure of love received to love given.

There is no transaction here

I love because of love in me

Not to get at the love in you

I know the conquistador

A heart wishes to be

Expanding territory and demanding tributes

Taxing the conquered, occupying, ruling.

I would have you free.

Disinterest is not un-interest

It is interest without transaction

Here is this love, and I go.

So, the cat

She is feral-born and flighty

I pet her and walk away

While others scoop her up

And she stiffens and seeks escape.

This cat

Sleeps at my feet, follows me into the bathroom

Swirls through my legs as I cook

And we each give, you see

Without an equation.

And so, with people,

We cannot chase them

If they need to go, they need to go

And the love we bore

We can let the wind take it

Let it blow layer by layer to them

As we turn and go.

poetry

Echo and Rock

by Sarah Lenora GingrichLeave a Comment on Echo and Rock
Echo and Rock

According to mercy

The children of God

Run, laughing into woods

Echo pursuing

Ducking under branches

Reaching to touch the lips still wet

With breath

That sent it forth

Smashing through

Colliding with the rocks

Who sent it back

In play, in volley

Will you make it back to me again, Echo?

Taunts the ageless rock

Born to wear lichen

Face shearing and calving

As pass thousands of years

But Echo ever visits

And for chief delight

The rock like a batter

Internally winds up

And cracks the faithful Echo

Back to the lips still wet from breath

And waits.

God, poetry, prayer

Strands

by Sarah Lenora GingrichLeave a Comment on Strands
Strands

It is within this moment, see

All moments reach backward

And squeeze the hand

Of the one that came before

The other hand extended

To pass the baton of Present

To find itself now Past, 

Now bearing story.

So, as I said

It is within this moment

So brief and soon to fade 

To eye’s reach and skin’s touch

That so incongruently

We may, at any point

Ungrasp and unreach

Stretch time-loosed hands up

And pierce eternity 

Prayer, unbound by locks

Of minutes, hours, years

Flies outward, upward

And God inclines His ear

Speak, child

Love comes to meet you

I keep watch over the words

That come out of Time.

You are learning the way Home

The gossamer strands you tie to Me

Follow them when you die

When the dark huddles over you

And eyes no longer serve

Feel for the strands

And follow them out of Time

Bidding Past farewell and 

Say

I’m sorry 

For all the good I didn’t do

And the love I didn’t live

And shake free of Time’s tick and tock

And upend your pockets of numbers.

Gather forgiveness for what the locusts ate

And

In that moment, come.

Book Reviews, kids

St. Ia Rides a Leaf, A Review

by Sarah Lenora GingrichLeave a Comment on St. Ia Rides a Leaf, A Review

I had the joy of reading this beautiful little board book by author Melinda Johnson which follows God’s miraculous provision for one of his saints. St. Ia was an Irish Christian who was called to serve as a missionary to the people of England in the 5th or 6th century. Having missed the ship that was sailing there, God provided her a leaf to bear her there.

I am so glad to share this miracle with my youngest kids, as so often we forget the magnificent ways that God is at work; indeed that He does startling things. That gives me a great deal of hope, and I know it will do the same for any kid blessed to have this read to them. What a gift to have the story of an ancient saint brought right into their own little hands, right into their imaginations and hearts with a sturdy book just for them.