Courage Unparalleled – Dec. 24, 2021
She did not cry, ‘I cannot. I am not worthy,’Nor, ‘I have not the strength.’She did not submit with gritted teeth, raging, coerced.Bravest of all humans, consent illumined her.The room filled with its light,the lily glowed in it, and the iridescent wings.Consent, courage unparalleled,opened her utterly. –Denise Levertov, from her poem Annunciation
Suspended – Dec. 23, 2021
This was the moment no one speaks of,when she could still refuse. A breath unbreathed, Spirit, suspended, […]
How Can This Be? – Dec. 22, 2021
She had been a child who played, ate, sleptlike any other child – but unlike others,wept only for pity, laughedin joy not triumph.Compassion and intelligencefused in her, indivisible. Called to a destiny more momentousthan any in all of Time,she did not quail,only askeda simple, ‘How can this be?’and gravely, courteously,took to heart the angel’s reply,perceiving instantlythe […]
Roads of Light – Dec. 21, 2021
Aren’t there annunciationsof one sort or anotherin most lives?Some unwillinglyundertake great destinies,enact them in sullen pride,uncomprehending.More oftenthose momentswhen roads of light and stormopen from darkness in a man or woman,are turned away fromin dread, in a wave of weakness, in despairand with relief.Ordinary lives continue.God does not smite them.But the gates close, the pathway vanishes.…. […]