As we continue to struggle with isolation, fears surrounding Covid-19, too much information, the lack of information, and misinformation I offer this prayer as we all journey the road together.
Ruth Jewell, ©April 28, 2020
Photo: Bryce Thompson Arboretum, Arizona, 2005, by Ruth Jewell.
Today, I went into the woods
cool shadows covered me
soft breezes kissed me
my footsteps muffled by last year’s leaves
I breathe deeply
scents of leaf, violet, and damp earth surround me
robin, finch, and woodpecker serenade me
rabbit, doe, and fox walk beside me.
I walked in the woods today
creation sang her glory
life in all her splendor surrounded me
The Creator held me in her arms
Ruth Jewell, ©April 14, 2020
Photo: The Guardian of the Woods
The Doctor sits beside the empty bed
respirator and tubing all about
bags and bandages clutter the floor
tired, so tired, she weeps
tears fall on the rumpled sheets
I couldn’t save her
she couldn’t breathe
I tried, Oh I tried so hard
She gasped her last
She said “thank you.”
Ruth Jewell, ©April 8, 2020
Today is a Palm Sunday unlike those we’ve ever had before. However, sometime the Creator tells us to take a moment to remember that in the universe, and world we create together, things often go awry. Nature has her own way of being and we have ours and it is in the balance between the two that we find life. Yet in all of the chaos of life we are not alone. They/Them will not let us travel this road alone, the creator is always walking along beside us, just like the shepherd is always with his flock.
This poem was written by my Grandfather during the height of the depression, another time of crises and chaos. May it bring you peace during this Holy Week.
In pastures green? Not always:
Sometimes thou who knoweth best,
In kindness leadeth me
In weary ways,
Where heavy shadows be.
And by still waters? No, not always so:
Oft times the heavy tempests
Round me blow
And o’er my soul
The waves and billows go.
But where the storm beats loudest,
And I cry aloud for help,
Thou standeth by,
And whispers to my soul
“Lo, it is I.”
So where He leads me I can safely go,
And in the blest here after
I shall know,
Why, in His wisdom,
He hath led me so
Rufus G. Miller, written 1936, ©Ruth Jewell, April 16, 2013
(My grandfather loved roses, and the rose picture is one I took at Buchart Gardens Vancouver Island BC, in 2016)
(Rufus Miller was my grandfather and a poet. My mother found this written on the back of a 1936 bulletin from the Christian Temple, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Lorain, Ohio in about 1962, among the belongings of my grandmother, Edith Miller, following her death.)
A Quiet Walk 