Living Tree Poetry

For being hurtful or thoughtless,
you should apologize.
For having your opinions or feelings,
you should not apologize.

When your fear or racism or selfishness
fly unchecked, apologize.
When you hurt someone—
even unintentionally—
apologize.

When you do your best and you fail,
when you are honest
and others are uncomfortable,
when you disagree and people are upset,
do not apologize.

Apologize for being hurtful.
Don’t apologize for being who you are.
Steve Garnaas Holmes

“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”
Maya Angelou

“We have to be braver than we think we can be, because God is constantly calling us to be more than we are.”
Madeleine L’Engle

“What is man that you take thought of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than God, and you crown him with glory and majesty!”
Psalm 8:4-5

MY PRAYER today is for expansiveness.  Glory in who you are.  Speak your truth, and dance your steps, with the unique rhythm you have been given by God.  What does the Desiderata tell us, ‘you are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.’  God says something even more, you don’t just have a right, he has a design.  There was a blue-print of you in heaven, long before you took your first breath.  Tell yourself this next time you feel small.  Its often as I write these reflections, I re-read the quotes I have used and I start to see how they tie together.

We are not to be reduced by events, Maya Angelou said.  I would like to add, that by giving up our need to control our circumstances, we find the ability to ‘influence’.  In Jeremiah 15, there are some inspiring verses, ‘.. you are to influence them, not let them influence you! They will fight against you like a besieging army against a high city wall, but they will not conquer you…” (Jer 15:19-20)  The world would seek to reduce us in our own eyes but God would have us take his perspective.  Today, may we remember that we are made a little lower than the angels and are crowned with glory and honour.

These are drawn from daily reflections and prayers which I write for my Chaplaincy colleagues.