Lenten Reflection Day 34 (Mar 27): DEED (Psalm 40:5-10).
SONG: Deed I Do by Ella Fitzgerald: https://youtu.be/Vj4gbky1QCU
POEM: Heid Erdrich: The Theft Outright (excerpt): … Such as we were we gave most things outright (the deed of the theft was many deeds and leases and claim stakes / and tenure disputes and moved plat markers stolen still today . . .) We were the land before we were a people, earthdivers, her darling mudpuppies, so the stories go, or emerging, fully forming from flesh of earth …
QUOTE: Theodore Roosevelt: The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly …
Lenten Reflection Day 33 (Mar 26): MULTIPLIED (Psalm 40:5-10).
Multiplied by Needtobreathe: https://youtu.be/0Gjx-ZQuQ_Y
SONG: Multiply by Jamie Liddell: https://youtu.be/fkqIsSTWSsc
POEM: Richard Michelson: More Money Than God (excerpt): ... who has traced / the provenance, and picks up the pace, multiplying offers. And who now does my father’s bidding? Heaven’s coffers, perhaps, are for the destitute …
SECOND POEM: Jane Hirshfield: Like two negative numbers multiplied by rain (excerpt): Old shoes, old roads— the questions keep being new ones. Like two negative numbers multiplied by rain / into oranges and olives.
QUOTE: Howard Zinn: We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.
Lenten Reflection Day 32 (Mar 25): FOLLOW ME (Psalm 23).
SONG: Follow Me by Uncle Kracker
POEM: Reina Maria Rodriguez: Memory of Water (excerpt): … whatever one does the others all follow, watching from the corners of their eyes …
QUOTE: Albert Camus: Don’t walk in front of me… I may not follow. Don’t walk behind me… I may not lead. Walk beside me… just be my friend.
Lenten Reflection Day 31 (Mar 24): OVERFLOW (Psalm 23).
SONG: Living in the Overflow ft. Charity Gayle and Joshua Sherman: hhttps://youtu.be/lmAfEI-Ibgc
POEM: Catherine Bowman: Story of a Tree (excerpt): All around us the underground world overflows with love. Season after season you return, sap rising up from your roots, unfinished, always becoming. I defended against love / for as long as I could / until I couldn’t.
QUOTE: Victor Hugo: Gradually, they began to talk. Overflow succeeded to silence, which is fullness.
Lenten Reflection Day 30 (Mar 23): PREPARE (Psalm 23).
SONG: Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord from Godspell
POEM: Edwin Markham: Preparedness: For all your days prepare, And meet them ever alike: When you are the anvil, bear— When you are the hammer, strike.
QUOTE: Douglas Adams: Let’s think the unthinkable, let’s do the undoable. Let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.