Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Poem: Prayer for Balance

Prayer for Balance
(Learning the Discipleship Dance)

So much gravity, so much sky, as I learn to step this dance,
The ground either offering support or waiting to slap me.
I try to find a focal point to stabilize my efforts; even
Then I vacillate - do I site a near point or one in the distance?

I can hold the hand of a friend in her sick bed, but I cannot touch
The wounded faces in images gleaming from my backlit
Screen of whole families weakened to blank stares by hunger.
I am treated to 11-year-old boys showing their class the cha-cha,
But see that a mother in Arizona cries for dreams snatched away.
My cup overflows with your church, their embrace my support,
Yet a young woman in Haiti who survived a childhood of neglect
Cannot face another day fearing that the world might collapse.

Who is my neighbor? was not – is not –a rhetorical question.
When everything I touch and eat and rest upon has been
Built on the back of a sister or brother who hasn’t been deemed
Worthy of the privileges I never earned but enjoy every day, I know
I must reach out to those who cannot see my friendship but seek it. 
As I lean forward, give me the hand of a neighbor to steady my steps.

May 3, 2011
Mary Biddle

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