Memorial Day

We prayed and remembered the men and women who fought for us in all the wars. 

We prayed for world leaders to find a better way.

We remembered John Lennon's song Imagine.

We planted vegetables, visited at the hospital, barbecued, and then walked.

The scent of lilacs drift by on a gust of wind. 

I follow it.

I bury my face in those flowers and inhale the memory of my mother,

Planting the lilacs in our backyard,

Decorating our home with lilacs every spring,

Standing outside in a thunderstorm, 

Listening for the sound and the power.

Holding my head in her lap,

Gently brushing my hair,

Comforting away the loneliness.

Trembling as she tries to stand up,

As frail as a hummingbird 

During our last embrace.

The best moment of the memorial day weekend was the moment I heard a "Love Poem to God" read aloud during the NPR show Speaking of Faith. The show was all about how various people from various faiths pray. 

I love you gentlest of Ways,

Who ripened as we wrestled with you.

You, the great homesickness we could never shake off,

You, the forest that always surrounded us,

You, the song we sang in every silence,

You the dark net threading through us,

On the day you made us you created yourself,

and we grew sturdy in your sunlight.....

Let your hand rest on the rim of heaven now 

and mutely bear the darkness we bring over you.

Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God