See blog at www.piecingstories.com/blog for more recent writings:
liturgy for worship, exploring faith with children, loving children,
grief and more
Recently I had the privilege and delight of reading to my daughter's first grade class. An eager hand shot up after we finished the chapter and a little boy inquired, "You like children, don't you?"
"Why, yes, I do," I replied. And then I asked him how he knew.
"Because Mrs. B told us."
My daughter had paved the way for my visit and let the children know that I am someone who is thrilled to be in the presence of children. Hands continued to reach for the sky and I called on each one to find out their question or comment. Before long almost half of the children shared that they have a relative living in Arizona.
A education professional who was visiting the class to observe one of the girls leaned over to my daughter and asked, "Does she know that most of them probably do not have relatives in Arizona?"
"Oh, she knows."
But I also knew it was a way for first graders from the heartland of Iowa to connect with someone from the exotic desert filled with tarantulas, cacti and quail.
John ate honey and locust, lived a life beyond the norm and paved the way for Jesus. He told people that someone was coming who cared about them, who would forgive them no matter what and urged people to turn from their lives of self-absorption and follow the way of compassion.
It makes such a difference when someone paves the way for us whether it is a person welcoming us to the neighborhood or recommending a doctor when we are facing life-threatening disease or preparing for a new pastor to serve with a congregation or introducing us to people who will enrich our lives and vice versa. The experience is usually more meaningful more quickly because someone has paved the way in love. Their thoughtfulness builds trust and frees us to be more open, vulnerable and go to the places we most desire to go: connection and wholeness.
For whom are you paving the way today or this week? Are you as eager and willing as first graders to find connections with people you encounter on a daily basis?
Cynthia Langston Kirk
March 30, 2009
Exploring Spirituality
She is curiosity with blue moon eyes
Eager to explore depths and heights
Beyond what she can muster with tiny body and strong arms
Ravenous to discover how a door opens
And treasures hidden on the other side.
Make me like this child, O God.
Curious about your mystery
Not determined to define,
But be embraced by it.
Eager to explore the depths of my heart -
Its potential and its darkness,
To marvel at the height and magnitude of your grace.
Ravenous to discover the most profound beauty of the world
When the gifts hidden within each of us combine
To bring the force of love, the power of compassion to bear.
Cynthia Langston Kirk
March 27, 2009
This morning I got up earlier than usual, an hour my sister and others call "the middle of the night." The stars and darkness call me to be awake, to create. After I worked with Paradise for an upcoming retreat, I made my way to the studio to work on stoles for several women and men who will be ordained in June.
The afternoons in Tucson are warm, but the mornings are still a bit chilly for thin-blooded people. I worked and prayed wrapped in an afghan made for me by Juanita who was a saint long before she died at age 96. Juanita who hailed from Happy, Texas was an encourager, a woman of deep and shining faith who could have been named for that tiny burg.
As I prayed for the ordinands I suddenly found myself praying gratitude for Juanita and the ways she helped form my soul. I prayed for other saints, living and dead, who have loved and mentored me. And I thought about people, young and old, poor and rich who have never been loved by a saint. Just that thought is enough to make my heart ache.
We all need people of deep faith and exuberant joy who are our companions on our spiritual journey. They bless and teach us in ways institutions cannot.
Who are the saints who have touched your life? You may want to light a candle and pray and write your gratitude.
Who are the people you are mentoring and loving, especially those who have few people who care about them? If your answer is no one, pray that you will be open to beginning or deepening a mutually life-changing relationship.
Cynthia Langston Kirk
February 4, 2009
I've been re-reading Worshipping Women by one of my favorite authors, Heather Murrray Elkins. In one chapter Heather writes about gossip and how the meaning of that word has been co-opted, altered to mean talk that chips away at the human spirit and relationship. However, it is derived from the word godsib that means midwife or godmother.
Several years ago I helped deliver a baby. I did not catch the baby, but was there to encourage the precious woman giving birth. It was a bit like being a midwife for the day - to be up close to the crowning miracle of life and be a cheerleader as it happened.
A year ago my husband and I were asked to be godparents: to help raise little Willa Kate in the faith and be a positive influence on her life, especially her spiritual life. To begin that journey we stood beside her and her parents at the Easter sunrise service and took vows on her behalf as Willa was baptized. We understand that what we say and do will have an impact on her relationship with the Holy One, her understanding of herself and the gifts within her, and her responsibility to and in the world.
Reflection:
How would it change the world if we gossiped in the way initially intended - if we shared with another person in such a way as to affirm life and gifts, in such a way as to be a cheerleader and helpmate? What if each time we shared with another person we thought of ourselves as a midwife bringing life or a godparent mentoring a person in life and faith?
Cynthia Langston Kirk
January 20, 2009
This Day
This day, like each day, is a day of new beginnings
Let us rejoice and be glad in it
This day, unique in all its glory, is a day of opportunities
Let us be attentive to the ways we can offer our gifts
This day the milestones achieved and the prayers yet to be realized reverberate
From Stone Mountain, Georgia to Seattle, from Slovakia to Sierra Leone
This day is a day to celebrate hope, freedom, community
Generosity, leaders, and God's unfaltering love
Cynthia Langston Kirk
January 18, 2009
Can It Be?
Off limits, stringently prohibited.
Do we have real appreciation for the well-traveled woman
And conversation that took place
Long before internet and phones connected us every waking minute
Reaching out and ready, even when we snore,
Long before intimate details of countless lives
With updated faces du jour and running commentary
Were added to a book for all to see?
Can we appreciate the scandalous nature of that encounter
The misconceptions, mistreatment of women
Which he opposed that day, every day
By words he spoke, company he kept,
The chasm of culture and position
They traversed with an inquiry and a bucket?
Neither should have acknowledged the other
Jew and Samaritan, male and female
But they looked past societal taboos
And engaged each other in
A dance of words, riddle and history
And a long drink of eternity.
Invitation birthed her ah ha
Can it be? Can he be?
Her answer raced, full speed, telling anyone willing to hear.
Reflection:
What lines do you cross for the sake of Love? With what people labeled prohibited do you engage in dialogue and relationship?
Based on John 4: 4-39
Epiphany Day 12 Cynthia Langston Kirk
January 16, 2009
Epiphany: Day 10
God revealed
In a child's gaze of wonder
And the hope of parents, waiting
Christ manifest
In wounds slowly healing
And the bread of justice for all
Spirit evident
In hearts restoring community
And lives following paths often labeled Foolish
Cynthia Langston Kirk
January 14, 2009
Two married friends of mine are swamped with a multitude of responsibilities and carving out time for an occasional date...or at least thinking about a date. Yesterday when I visited their home, she drew attention to their Christmas tree, still up even though the Christmas sesaon is past and we are fully into the season of Epiphany. On the tree hung three ornaments and the top was adorned with a beautiful star. To look at the tree anyone would think that the couple had gotten sidetracked when they had nearly finished taking down the tree. Truth is, only three ornaments and a star got hung this year.
I suggested, "It can be your Epiphany tree" to which she smiled.
The symbols of the Christian year can give us hints and markers of the season much like the first crocus through the snow indicates spring is on the way. Epiphany, symbolized by a star or candle, reveals that the Light of Christ has come into the world, a light of love, peace and joy.
The season of Epiphany comes to us as an awakening and an invitation, not an obligation. It comes no matter what symbols are on our dining tables or how full our calendars are. Sometimes work, family, acts of compassion, grief or whatever requires so much energy and time that nothing is left for adorning a tree or trading a nativity set for a star candleholder, but the symbols are to be inspirations and teachers, not obstacles to participating in the love of God.
I invite you to light a candle and consider the beautiful image of an Epipahny tree topped with a single star.
What is God revealing to you this Epiphany season? How is Christ's love being made manifest through you?
Cynthia Langston Kirk
January 9, 2009
Baptism
Do you hear your name today
As the heavens expand
And water rolls down your face?
Winged Ruah whispering
You are also God's beloved.
Upheld on the lake
Forgiven at the well
Lost and saved at sea
Too many times to count.
Born in the waters
To the droplets we cling
Longing to sense the blessing on our head -
The gift of being known and loved.
Do you hear it now?
Cynthia Langston Kirk
January 7, 2009
Grief's Quagmire
Disoriented madness pounced
Like a ravenous, feral cat.
Yesterday's wisdom vanished
And I can scarcely remember my name
The time of day
Or that my loved one is dead.
Lead my gently, friend
Help me make decisions
That have never come my way.
Listen to my repetitive babble
And know my sanity is still buried deep within.
Let me thank you
Again and again,
Scream in your presence
Cry until my eyes dry heave.
Let me be
And simply accept me,
Care for me.
Let me grieve in my own way
For this is the only way I know.
When the time seems right,
Gently suggest ways
Of remembering and honoring
Sorting and sifting
That I might try.
Hold my hand and listen to my fear
Stay with me when relatives depart
And the monsters of aloneness
Ring the doobell
A hundred suitcases in their hands.
Cynthia Langston Kirk
December 30, 2008
Toward Epiphany
Stick figures undressed
Shivered and shook
Forming frozen statues of trunks and branches
Beside the sleeping fields.
Stubbles of last summer's crop
Peek through the snow
With persistent five o'clock shadow.
Fog pockets of lace and walls dance
Keeping us watchful for the next emerging shape
From the seamless white.
Can you hear the twigs snap
The ice crackle
The snow crunch
Without foot or hand upon them?
Or does stark beauty simply
Suggest the tunes?
Can we travel with confidence
When the road is blurred
And every map useless?
God of the Journey,
Companion us with the unfamiliar and fearsome
Awaken our sleeping trust
Until we embrace your light.
Cynthia Langston Kirk
December 16
O God, the lists grow longer; parking lots are jammed; the noise level swells this Advent season and yet, the wind whispers your questions, “Are you preparing for baby? Are you making room in your heart for love?”
We want to see the Christ Child with fresh eyes; to hear the Story as if it were the first time we heard it. We want to be ready for the baby, but the forces of our own society pull us to accumulate, buy, and pack our hours with more of the glitter than the grace of Christmas.
Lead us to quiet places of attentiveness. Fill our hearts with gratitude for time spent with others, nature experienced and memories made. Give us the gift of generosity that we in turn make a difference in someone’s life. Holy One, help us make room in our hearts for you. Amen.
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