Doulas for Justice

 Oof, it's been a while. Well, we've been locked down and quarantined. Doubly quarantined, now, because it's early fire season already and we are not going out into the poisonous Northern California air. I was unable to travel to be at my sister's birth because of covid. Instead I wrote her songs and sent them to be with her. She requested two verses that she wanted to meditate on as she got ready to give birth:

Romans 8:19-23: For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 

Amos 5:24: Let justice roll down like water, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

Her child was safely born, to the sound of these songs: Stella Justice. She is named for the justice we all yearn for, as this earth groans under the weight of a global pandemic, and the centuries of oppression and exploitation which make this disease disproportionately devastating in developing countries and communities of color. 

The verse from Romans was also chosen by my Presbytery as a touchstone verse for our anti-racism work. At the end of a recent zoom call we all committed to the labor and work ahead of us and someone called out "yeah! We're like doulas for justice!"

I share the songs here for anyone who would like to use them-- in physical labor, or in societal labor. Sheet music is linked below.
And PS you've got to read my sister's birth story.

 

 

New Song for Advent

Hey folks, here's a hymn text I wrote. I wanted an easily-accessible advent hymn, that would make sense to children, and it's amazing how many complex metaphors you find in the traditional advent hymns. Also, I wanted another chance to sing a hymn tune that is not sung NEARLY enough.

Enjoy! Share, use, etc.

PDF file for printing

We’re on the road to Bethlehem, that long and winding way
Preparing for the savior who comes on Christmas Day
As, hearts aglow with gladness, we wait and hope and pray:
O get ready, for God is on the way, coming to stay, O get ready for God is on the way.

With Mary and with Joseph, the baby coming soon,
We see them knock on every door, but people say “no room.”
The angels, over Bethlehem, are practicing their tune:
O get ready, for God is on the way, coming to stay, O get ready for God is on the way.

 The shepherds, watching in the fields, may close their sleepy eyes,
But soon the host of heaven will wake them by surprise.
The magi start to follow the star in the skies.
O get ready, for God is on the way, coming to stay, O get ready for God is on the way.

We’re on the road to Bethlehem, we’re all making our way
To find the King of Kings lying humble in the hay;
The prophets called us long ago, we hear them still today:
O get ready, for God is on the way, coming to stay, O get ready for God is on the way.

Chemo: pulverization anthems

My mom's in chemo now, getting ready for a surgery in a few months that will hopefully remove her bladder cancer. Every monday for 12 weeks she will be at the hospital getting chemo. So, every Monday, we're wearing headscarves in solidarity, and some of us are making cancer-crushing anthems to send. Here's the first...

A word about pulverization: we asked mom questions about how she's imagining the process. According to what she understands from her doctor, it's the chemotherapy's job to break up the cancer. So she's imagining it pulverized. Sing along!

(later: adding a few others...)
Headscarf Monday, hippie edition

Monday come and we pulverize...

And shake it up chemo...

Art-Work

Art is work. It’s good work and fun work but work nonetheless. You can’t just expect it to burst on you from out of nowhere, as if creativity were something that happens to you. Put yourself in the right frame of mind, a little emotional, maybe a little drunk, and art is supposed to magically explode within you… or that’s how the story goes. You know what, I’ve been waiting a long time for that to happen to me, and so far nada.

Exercise #1 in debunking that myth:
A Master Class in Pre-Renaissance Sacred Art.
This was my “fun” class for winter term. We broke marble (the stone, not the little round toys) into pieces and made mosaics. I started with grand ambitions along the line of my friend Charles’ great work, thinking I’d do some kind of Biblical scene. I learned how to cut marble, and immediately realized I’d have to scale back by about 97%. I made three circles and it almost killed me. Hello, discipline.




Exercise #2. The Vagina Monologues.
I am in charge of stage, costumes, props, and music. The simple idea “we should process in carrying candles” turned into a huge shebang with 15 glass jars and melting a lot of wax and carefully cooling it at just the right pace. And I’ll have to re-melt and replace them all with a new set of candles before the performance. I’d rather just trust they will, but apparently other people want to be sure. Okay. Accountability.


Also, my monologue didn’t come to me in a flash of brilliance. I tried voices and attitudes that didn’t fit at all, and my friends told me “try again.” and again.

Exercise #3. The Artist’s Way (ongoing).
This is a book given to me by my boyfriend for Christmas, but it’s more than a book, it’s a course and a challenge. Julia Cameron asks you to do affirmations on themes such as “there is a divine plan of goodness for my work" and to express yourself regularly and mandatorily – regardless of whether or not your internal censor tells you “it’s crap, throw it out.” Just write. Keep writing. You don’t need to show it to anyone, but you DO need to practice, and you DO need to express instead of squelching the stuff you’re “not supposed to say.”

Exercise #4
Work can be art?
Telling stories to children, designing curriculum for youth group.
If that isn’t art I don’t know what is.
How about treating it as such?

Created in God's image

There's something difficult in the word "dominion" which the humans are commanded to exercise in most translations of the Bible: "have dominion over the fish and the birds and the animals." It should be translated somewhere on the fine line between "stewardship" and "domination," because its meaning is about midway between, but the problem is that the word resembles one much more than the other. So I take Ellen Davis' recommendation to call it "skilled mastery" (from her full article which you can download right here) which indicates that our rule is not arbitrary or forceful. In order to take good care of it, we must have knowledge and respect for it.
Also, the "be fruitful and multiply" is mostly quoted with reference to humans, but the fish & birds & all are also commanded to be fruitful and multiply. Let us not forget our kinship.

A reading modified from Gen 1:26-28

God said, “let us create humankind in our image, according to our likeness, and let them exercise skill and mastery over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”
So God created humankind, Adam, (earthling), in God’s image.
In the image of God,
God created him,
Male and female,
God created them.
In much the same way God had already blessed the animals, God now blessed humankind, and God said, “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and exercise skilled mastery over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”

AND A PRAYER.
Great God, you have created us in your image,
and imprinted upon us your attributes.
You have created us to be creators,
you have created us to be creative.
Deep in our souls is imprinted
your limitless vision of this world’s fertility and abundance;
sharp on our hearts is your call
to exercise good stewardship and loving care over what is entrusted to us.
We feel the true goodness of the world you have created
And the particular goodness of our little corner of the world.
We are standing on holy ground; ought we to have removed our shoes?
Great God,
Into your servants breathe the inspiration of your holy spirit,
Scrub away whatever is covering your image hidden inside.
Allow us to pray and to think and to speak from that place of creativity, of wisdom, of love and tender care.
Be in our work, and in our play. Be love in our hearts today.
In the strong name of Jesus Christ we pray, Amen.

(I prayed that for the trustees of SFTS as they opened their meeting yesterday. I'm an avid recycler. )

Glorious Nature

Thoreau told me once:
"My profession is to be always on the alert to find God in nature, to know God's lurking places, to attend all the oratorios, the operas, in nature."

Usually when I bring this to mind I have a solemn moment with me and God and a tree or something, and a bit of Beethoven comes to mind.
But today's contemplation was definitely of the comic opera type - opera buffa. I am housesitting, dogsitting, goatsitting, beekeeping, chicken-tending for a friend of a friend. The house is great; it's a wonderful gig. The goat has two little kids about 3 weeks old. They climb on top of one another to try to be king of the mountain; they jump off of high things and stumble; they dare the dog to chase them.

Yes, God is like this too. It's not always about splendor and majesty. Sometimes God does not go disguised as stunningly powerful and timeless lakes and rocks and stuff, but would prefer to sneak up behind you and nibble on your boots and say PLAY WITH ME! And we do.