05 August 2025

'70'

some say Life 
is mostly making up
a song and dance
'it's all for show
it's all a game
of random chance'
but you two
have Lived your Lives
individually and communally
Gracefully and Faithfully
in such Real Ways
that reveal the more
Meaningful Melodies
and Heartfelt Harmonies
in the Sacred Song
the more Magnificent Movements
and Revelatory Rhythms
of the Divine Dance 
and helped so many
to raise their voices
and move their bodies
individually and communally
Gracefully and Faithfully 
and join together
in that Cosmic Choir
of Creation
and our Creator
that Eternal Ensemble
that exalts
the Majesty and Glory
of the Name
above all names 
all whilst balancing
two vocations and
three little relations
with one Hand
in one Heart
celebrating every June
naming every tune
facing every sunrise
embracing every moon
climbing every mountain
fording every stream
of challenging circumstance
with ebullient Endurance
and resilient Romance
and asking each other
time and time again
with a wink
and a glance
'Shall We Sing?
Shall We Dance?'

Seventy years on
you both continue
to Sing your Song
of Everlasting Love
and with deep gratitude
for each Day
and each Ray
of Light from Above
We Joyfully join you
and Sing along...

(Happy 70th Anniversary, dear Mom & Dad...i love you...brian)

(First pic is their engagement portrait, 1955...Second pic is from their 70th anniversary celebration, 2025...and PS...they 'celebrate every June' b/c their birthdays are 9 and 18 June 1933, respectively :)

#70YearsDoingAnythingIsAmazing #But70YearsDoingLifeTogetherInLoveIsMiraculous 


22 July 2025

spinning faster

so Today 
will apparently
be shorter
than Yesterday
(we're talking
mere milliseconds)
because Our
Miraculous Home
is revolving
at speeds
measurably higher
than usual
for reasons
more Mysterious
than scientists
can explain
perhaps it
is due
to shrinking
icecaps upon
or slowing
magma within
our Earth
but regardless
it feels
like our
whirling Planet
might be
sending us
swirling signs
in these
trying seasons
to remind
our hurtling
Minds and
hurting Hearts
that reacting
to changes
that reflect
more how
we're evolving 
than devolving
in ways
more heartless
than harmless
is impacting
our Bodies
and Beings
our Psyches
and Spirits
(reverting Us
into whirling
dervishes of
swirling nervousness
curdling our
blood rather
than cradling
our Belovedness)
so what
if taking
some time
to stop
spinning faster
towards potentially
fatal disaster
(we're talking
mere nanoseconds)
and Pause
and Breathe
and Remember
and Believe
that our
innately Divine
Worth is
immeasurably Higher
than our
fears will
ever factor
(resisting the
irrepressible temptation
to lash
out in
fright and
fatefully plaster 
Each Other
with blame
and shame)
We might
Respectfully refrain
Faithfully shine
our Light
and lavish
Each Other
with Love
that leads
to All
of Us
enacting a
New Birth
where We
end up
Winning faster
with Redemptive
Joy and
Restorative Justice
and Grinning 
Laughter in
the Sacred
Unity of
Beloved Community
We are
in the
Gloriously Radiant
Here and
Now and
Forever After?

Let It Be.


#235wordprayers #PausingInParadise #SlowingDownInTheSpirit #ReconnectingWithTheRhythm #RediscoveringJoyForTheJourney #WeAreStillOne 



04 July 2025

Incarnation of Interdependence

on this Day
when We celebrate
Our declaration
of Independence
from tyranny
may we (re)dedicate
Our Selves to
Our Incarnation
of Interdependence
in Liberty
the Sacred You-and-Me
that constitutes 
the Beloved Community
welcoming All Beings
huddled and Hallowed
yearning to Breathe Free
seeing no strangers
but only Parts
of Our Hearts
and Our Selves We
have not met yet
and may We
never forget
that living out
Revolutionary Love
involves giving up
convolutionary fear
(which devolves Us
into heartlessly shaming
and disgracing each other)
and revolves around
laying down arms
of desperate violence
and opening up Arms
of Infinite Silence
which empowers Us
into Heartfelt sharing
and embracing Each Other
as the One Body
of Divine Love
We already Are
Breathing and Being
and needing Each Other
and greeting each Day
as the Gift
It already Is
where we Celebrate
our Interconnection
as One Cosmically
(In)Carnal Reality...

Let It Be.

#150wordprayers #HappyInterdependenceDay2025 #TodayWeCelebrate #TomorrowAndEachDayForwardWeBreatheAndPushAndIncarnateAndDemonstrateRevolutionaryLove

('Statue of Liberty' © Otis Porrit)







02 June 2025

more Love than fears (for 35 Years)

Thirty-five years
of more Love
and Laughter
than fears
(though plenty
of tears for
situational sorrows
and relational Joy)
have left me
with fewer words
and more Wonder
at what Love
has joined together
that no one
or no thing
has rent asunder
all that might
have destroyed
and buried Us
the blunders
and thunders
of brokenness
and unspokenness
the flurries
of worries
about narrowing finalities
and harrowing Realities
and the uncertainties
of imagined tomorrows
the many things
that could drive 
Us down onto
the wailing Floor
that can also
remind Us
of the prevailing
Flow beneath Us
and between Us
that empowers Us
to authentically Adore
and dovetailingly Engage
in this erratic
and Ecstatic Dance
the Resurrectional Rhythm
of the Love
that married Us
to Each Other
and deployed Us
to bear It
and share It
with All Others
that leaves Us
with this chance
to offer up
Thirty-five Cheers
and Sighs
and Laughs
and (Hope-fully)
many more...

Thanks.

#160wordprayers #FourFortyWordPrayersForOneAndThreeQuarterScoreYearsOfLifeConceivedInTheLibertyOfLove #HalfOfSeventyAccordingToPoppy #35YearsGetsYouStephanieInnAtCannonBeach #LoveYouKLM



26 May 2025

puddles and muddles...Ripples and Revelations (*Memorial Day 2025)

Sitting alone on a rainy Monday.

Memorial Day.

A day to remember all those who have given their lives in the service of their country, bravely and sacrificially engaging in the tragic and seemingly unavoidable human irony of 'fighting for Peace'.

Looking out my front window from my candlelit desk.

Jotting some very random thoughts onto a very regulated (lined) note pad.

And then something unexpected caught my eye and captured my attention for a few fleeting moments.

A blue jay.

It's brilliant plumage puncturing the grimy grey of the stormy day.

Landing on a yard of recently roto-tilled dirt dotted with newly-planted bushes and trees.

Hopping its merry way over the humus. pecking at the peat moss. scratching away at the surface of the soil. searching for some seeds.

And plopping into a puny, provisional 'pond' on the edge where the sidewalk and soil meet.

The puddle having appeared as the result of a sprinkler head snapping off and water slowly seeping into the ground.

For the faithful keepers of the grounds and myself, a minor annoyance soon to be remedied by a remodeled drip irrigation system.

For the blue jay, a bounteous, blessed basin in which to bathe.

A makeshift millpond of mud in which to be washed.

Face refreshed, feathers flushed, and flying away in a matter of seconds.

And wee, winsome waves, remnants from rustling wings, gently rippling through the water.



i encounter a puddle appearing in the 'wrong' place resulting from a human-made system breaking down. and all i can see is a 'problem' to be solved by more human-made ingenuity.

A bird sees some dirty water that can make her clean.

People experience circumstances in life and brokenness in humanity that create caverns of confusion and conundrums of conflict, tiny puddles of pain in our psyches that transform into tumultuous torrents of muddle in our souls. And all we seem to do is rage against the machinery that has mangled our manifest destinies, and then manufacture new machinery to counteract those maniacal powers that have seemingly harrowed our hopes and destroyed our dreams.

Nature seems to face circumstances as they come, and simply works with whatever life provides to move forward.

We live to eat and fight for Peace.

A bird eats to live and flies in Peace.

And i'm reminded that the extent to which we are willing to give our lives is connected to what is essential in order to live our lives.

And that the sordid squalor in which we so often wallow and wrestle could actually be the Sacred Sanctuary in which we more often Wander and Wonder.

And that a tiny ripple in an inadvertent puddle can be the catalyst of remembrance, and contain the Reverberations of Revelation. 



(NOTE: This is NOT the one that landed in my yard. For once, i was too busy actually paying attention to and engaging in the life right before my eyes rather than distracting myself by trying to 'capture' it, and missing the Revelations that came enfolded in its curious careening.

(*Written on Memorial Day 2013...and for some reason, not published until Memorial Day 2025)


09 May 2025

collapses and Synapses

trying to drift
off to sleep
but the wait
for my Psyche
to softly slip
in to sleep 
is increasingly stretched
out to lengths
untenable and unbearable
by the weight
of the world
(apparently unrepairable)
hurtling down from
the heavens like
boulders of lead
upon my head
swirling like dervishes 
of despair converging
into a taught
knot of terrorizing
tightness and frightness 
in my chest
swelling like tsunamis
of bludgeoning blame
and secret shame
within my Soul
(seemingly unsharable) 
demeaning my Self
for not beaming
more Hopeful Light
into a World
curling in upon
Its Self amidst
being battered by
the relentless waves
of ignorant ignominy
and monstrous misogyny
and shameless greed
and endless need
with petulant progeny
stirring up animosity
(rather than fostering
our innate inter-relationality)
and supposedly 'fulfilling
ancient prophecy' in
ways far more
divisive than Divine 
and rendering any
fleetingly flailing energy
to embody empathy
as daunting drudgery
in failing lethargy
leaving me feeling
like a dope
waiting for Godot
(or a plume
of Pope smoke)
to help me
cope with wondering
if i have
any room left
within my Soul
(scared and scarred
and barely Sacred)
to even care
about our Cosmology
or our Community
or our Humanity
which drives me
to a place
ravaged and bare
where the only
Water to share
are my tears
of aching despair...

and it's right
in that moment
of possible collapse
that the Light
sparks a synapse
in my Psyche
that transforms my
fear-based flagellations into
a Love-embraced Revelation 
that maybe 
it's when
i feel like
i don't care 
(weepily)
about anything
(or anyone)
that i find
i do care 
(Deeply)
about Everything
(and Everyone)
and so
i let go
of the rope
onto which (not 
from which) i 
had been hanging
and allow my
Self to slow
down and settle
my head into 
the pillow that 
had been serving 
as a wall 
into which i 
had been banging
whilst lying
and sighing
and crying
and dying
and trying
to Rest...

Thanks.

#333wordprayers #Eastertide2025 #LetGoAndLetLove #FaithfulReleaseCanUnleashJusticeAndPeace

('Synapses' © Corrina Chirila)



08 May 2025

the First City

the last Time
i hurtled through
Space and Time
at a speed
and a height
that mere Humans
were not Created
to safely endure
for a distance
that my Forebears
could barely survive
from one shining
Sea to Another
through an Ocean
of Spacious Sky 
it was clear
enough to see
another sparkling Sea
(not quite Superior
but Great nonetheless)
with a City
on the shore
(not a hill
but shining nonetheless)
shimmering with Promise
and expansive (yet
unjustly expensive) Hope
and i Marveled 
at this Hallowed
and Heavenly sight
like a dream
manifest in Reality
(which i would
one Day see
for my Self)...

but this Time
the view is
murky and clouded
by stormy Skies
which both disguise
and sadly surmise
the sordid state
of our dis-union
the raging disease
of man-infest destinies
and turbulent tyrannies
enacted and exacted
by wanna-be dictators
disposing of essential
Human Rights whilst
posing for fame
overcompensating for their
insecurities and uncertainties
by blowing lots
of hot air
to douse the
Embers of Equity
and Humane Equality
(which only rouses
them into Flame)
blurring the Vision
of our Divine
sense of Mission
with a desperate
attempt at political
and sociological fission
like our Existence 
is some kind
of maniacal game...

yet whilst shrouded
mists of mayhem
reign supreme below
there is Grace
ever shining Above
the frantic fray
a Radiant Canopy
of Resplendent Love
with Space to
Breathe in deeply
a soothing Breeze
of Sacred Spirit
and to see
a Beautiful Vision
that extends beyond
a Second City
to the First
of Its Kind
where it's cool
to be Kind
where the cruel
are given Light
to recognize the
Rays of Revealing
that illuminate all
that paralyzing fear
has been concealing
giving new Sight
to the blind
and new Delight
to all who
Seek (and Find
that We are
already Found and
Freed) never bound
to any system
or religion or
philosophy or creed
but only to 
our Eternal Lover
and Each Other
and our need
to be there
for Each Other
Together in all
kinds of weather
through all Time...

Thank You.

#350wordprayers #Eastertide2025 

(Two pictures from 35,000 feet...one three years ago, the other yesterday...)