Resurrection Clothes

Being where I am is such a long-forgotten skill but now I’m trying it again… in this body, here, and now, breathing this breath, cool and quiet, filling me, then pausing, holding still, then letting go, exhaling long and soft. And walking down the tire-worn drive between the woodlot on my right and grass and trees and landscape on my left, and beyond and almost out of sight, the county road, each step a balancing my body knows. And looking upward into trees, their leaves, their separate shapes, their variations on the color green, kaleidoscopic, mesmerizing shiftings in the bluest blue-sky breeze. And now attending to the sounds of katydids and crickets, birdsong echoing from trees, a car and my awareness of which way it’s coming from, and when it passes by and glides toward town. And catching next the grassy scent of cattle in a neighbor’s pasture, bringing back old memories of other homes and pastures, children youn...

Lord, I’m tired. I’ve been doing what you said. Now where’s my bread? I’m glad we’re going to a place alone, with you, to rest. And in the boat we do have respite, time at last to listen to the wavelets slap the boat, to see the sky so blue so vast, to smell the air so full of joy, to laugh and then in awe recount what has been done through us, our hands, our oil infused with miracles beyond our grasp. But now (I gasp) the crowd has followed us preceded us in fact, and here we go again. Your face your eyes so full of mercy and of grace and as you speak we all—the crowds and we alike— forget our need and drink and eat your words, refreshment at its best! Yes, we’ll soon feed the thousands with some little loaves of bread, but even now, we’re satisfied, consuming what you said. February 19, 2019 The Gospel for today is Mark 6:30-34, about the twelve disciples’ return from their successful mission: Jesus had sent them out, two...

Quirky, funny girl—at 60 still so open to the world! (Too open, you might say— it’s often filled with so much pain.) But you have eyes that see, have hands that make of things already beautiful more beauty still. Your bunnies and your baubles and your people met at random brighten in your camera and then fly through cyberspace like stars, Instagramming to our hearts. Follow Vickie on Instagram: bollingvickie

People brought to Him… the demon-possessed…and he healed them.   ~ Matt 4:23-24 They call me lunatic. It’s just that when my head is splitting with the pain and fear of—what?—of all that could be wrong in all the world—oh no! Here it comes again— that dread, that ragged breath I wish would stop and let me die in peace! And now they say a healer walks along the shore, and we are going there— for what? Another devastated hope? No more! I let them drag the cart where I, lying limp, drag my hand along the grit and dust of this damned road. For what? O God, it is too much! Now he’s in sight and for the first time in how long? I do not know— I rise on one elbow and then the other and I know a certain glimmer —can it be?—of hope! That man who’s dancing! I’ve seen him beside the road, a crumpled husk. Can this be he, the very same? But he is changed! Can I? I shudder at the thought that after all this ti...

I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.   ~  John 1:29-34 Here he comes, cousin, kinsman, the one who even as a child gave me breath and hope to see beyond the stones and stars to a deeper, higher way. Playmate of my childhood those times of visitation of our mothers, starting even in the womb. I leapt at his approach. And here he comes again, walking, purposeful, his face, his gaze turned right on me. I rise from where I bend over the newly baptized and look him full in his shining face. I know why he has come. But can it be? Can he, the one who showed me grace now come and bend to these waters to be plunged and have his sins expunged? He knows no sin! I know! I see into his heart at last. How can he come to me to be cleansed? Oh no! But he walks on, says yes, I come to you. It must be so. And so we step together into that waiting pool. I see him sink, then rise. And now! T...