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Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Poem: "Starting Over - Fighting Back" by Sheila Cassiday


And so we must begin to live again,
We of the damaged bodies
And assaulted mind.
Starting from scratch with the rubble of our lives
And picking up the dust
Of dreams once dreamt.

And we stand there, naked in our vulnerability,
Proud of starting over, fighting back,
But full of weak humility
At the awesomeness of the task.

We, without a future,
Safe, defined, delivered
Now salute you God.
Knowing that nothing is safe,
Secure, inviolable here.
Except you,
And even that eludes our minds at times.
And we hate you
As we love you,
And our anger is as strong
As our pain,
Our grief is deep as oceans,
And our need as great as mountains.

So, as we take our first few steps forward
into the abyss of the future,
We would pray for
Courage to become what we have not been before
And accept it,
And bravery to look deep within our souls to find
New ways.

We did not want it easy God,
But we did not contemplate
That it would be quite this hard,
This long, this lonely.

So, if we are to be turned inside out, and upside down,
With even our pockets shaken,
just to check what's rattling
And left behind,
We pray that you will keep faith with us,
And we with you,
Holding our hands as we weep,
Giving us strength to continue,
And showing us beacons
Along the way
To becoming new.

We are not fighting you God,
Even if it feels like it,
But we need your help and company,
As we struggle on.
Fighting back
And staring over.

8 comments:

  1. I love Sheila Cassidy. This is a great poem at any time but on USA election day seems even more relevant.Blessings :-))

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    1. Good point. It does fit so well with the election. Many thanks.

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  2. You might like this one
    A MEDITATION contributed by Pam Freeman from here http://www.pastoral.org.uk/Features/Spiritual/Meditations/You.Keep.Us.Waiting.htm

    Leader : You keep us waiting,

    You,
    The God of all time
    Want us to wait
    For the right time in which
    To discover who we are,
    Where we must go,
    Who will be with us,
    And what we must do…..

    All : So, thank you for the waiting time.

    Leader : You keep us looking,
    You,
    The God of all space,
    Want us to look
    In the right and wrong places
    For signs of hope,
    For people who are hopeless,
    For visions of a better world
    Which will appear
    Among the disappointments
    Of the world we know…

    All : So, thank you for the looking time

    Leader : You keep us loving,
    You,
    The God whose name is love,
    Want us to be like you…
    To love the loveless and the unlovely and the unlovable,
    To love those near us without jealousy or design or threat,
    And,
    Most difficult of all,
    To love ourselves….

    All : So, thank you for the loving time.

    Leader: And in all this
    You keep us.
    Through hard questions with no easy answers,
    Through failing where we hoped to succeed
    And making an impact when we felt we were useless.
    Through the patience and the dreams and the love of others,
    And through Jesus Christ and His Spirit,
    You,
    Keep us….

    All : So, thank you for the keeping time
    and for now and for ever AMEN

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  3. I believe "Starting Over" was actually written by Anna McKenzie, and it is quoted in the appendix of the book "Good Friday People" by Sheila Cassidy. Whoever wrote it, it is a very poignant expression of how a lot of us feel these days, betrayed by all the institutions we grew up believing in and fighting for and trying to pass on to the next generation, and for us older people, betrayed also by our inevitably deteriorating minds and bodies. Hard to imagine keeping going, much less starting over, but that is what we need the courage to do.

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    1. Could be. I did not find it in its original source. Good reflection. I guess at some point we choose not to start over, but for the bulk of our life this is the only thing we can choose.

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  4. This poem resonates very deeply with me. Thank you very much.

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    Replies
    1. I'm glad it helps. I'm told it has been consoling for others as well.

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