Watching Angels Dance

Watching Angels Dance

Isn’t it funny how?

God always knows

Which color of eyes

The perfect shape of a nose

Would be most fitting

When designing us

At the wave of a hand

With very little fuss

The brilliance of our Creator

Is amazing indeed

How he fills every void

Tends to every need

Making the color of the ocean

And a grain of sand

Equally as important

As the creation of man

He brought us here together

To learn from the start

To love from within

Beginning with our hearts

Every organism has

Its own special duty

Under the site of God

Amazed by His beauty

We grow together as one

As His will would have it be

Reminding us to love each other

I love you ...you love me

And when we begin living

For our earthly desires

He exhibits His anger

And unforeseen things transpire

The heavens open up

And the world below shakes

He sends in storms

And giant earthquakes

He reminds us daily that He loves

Our tender hearts

But let there be no mistake

We must do our part

Our part may seem difficult

Of that there is no doubt

But while we are wasting time

Trying to figure it out

We are failing to do what

He sent us for

To save one another

To open closed doors

We get so busy questioning

The meaning of it all

And get caught up in us

And soon comes a great fall

We forgot the homeless man

Who is living down town

We act like we don’t see him

Since we don’t see God around

We ignore the pleas of children

With no food to eat

Well, I want to help

Maybe next week

We avoid the abused

We ignore the maimed

And we curse God

When we encounter the same

We expect God to be

At our beckoned call

But we ignore Gods wishes

And another tear falls

God cries not for himself

But the ignorance of man

And when things become

So far out of hand

He lifts up His hand

And yells a thunderous STOP

Stating...I care not what you want

I don’t care what you thought

I gave you one job

The most important one

To love one another

And you reach for guns

You no longer listen

To the heart beat of God

And yet tremble in fear

At the sight of my rod

You say you want peace

Yet rarely a day goes by

When you aren’t destroying each other

And now you ask why?

Give the love I gave you

It costs you not a dime

Those hearts that you are breaking

Those souls are mine

Those lives left barren

With bullets piercing their skin

Were your brothers and sisters

At the very least...your friends

They were angels I sent you

To keep you on your path

And look at your destruction

The violent aftermath

And He slowly whispers softly

I hope you get it right

Because there will come one more day

When you come into my sight

And on the Day of Judgment

Let there be no mistake

I will ask of your contribution

And the difference you made

What wrongs did you correct

Since we last spoke

How did you repair

The hearts that you broke

And if you stand in silence

As children often do

I will mention

It was all up to you

So my child take this

Your one final chance

To join me in Heaven

To watch the angels dance

Blame

Blame

    I was thinking today about an incident that happened when I was a child which disappointed the people that I loved and who loved me the most. The circumstances really don’t matter, because it was the disappointment that I caused which bothered me the most. I was thinking about this today, and it made me think about what God must think of His creation as He looks down upon us. He, who created all things, made everything as it was supposed to be. I wonder how often He is disappointed when He peers down upon those that He loves so much. Do we even care? Does it matter to us now, while we are not only destroying each other, but the earth that we require for our existence? We have grown indifferent towards one another, at best. At worst, we find reasons to hate and kill each other…not just in the physical sense but in the sense that we constantly destroy each others spirit. We find reasons to not speak to people, unless it is to display our displeasure with one another. We don’t seem to know, or want to know one another. We find reasons to dislike or hate one another, based on skin tones…as if any of us had a choice in that matter; we dislike those who don’t believe in God…and we even dislike those that believe in a creator…but choose to worship differently than we do. We point fingers and make fun of those who have less than we have…as if we have been guaranteed to have these things while we are on this earth. We even have encouraged our children to do the same. It’s true that we may not have told them to be that way…but the strongest lesson ever learned truly is the one unspoken, but observed. Our children are literally killing each other…and all we do is place blame on others. We blame the parents, the neighborhood, the religion, or the race for any short comings. Of course, we couldn’t be at fault for any of this; after all we have our own problems. But just out of curiosity…shouldn’t our nation’s children killing each other be our problem? We complain about gangs and the violence they bring…yet we don’t look deeper. Would our children turn to gangs if they had communities that helped provide other options for them? Is that our problem? Well, I guess if we don’t live in that community, we could say that what happens there is not our problem…until the violence from that community comes into your community. Then the solution becomes easy…lock them up…or even better…let them kill each other. Is that the real solution? So instead of us reaching out to help these children, before they turn to gangs…we now have to deal with the result of the gang violence. What would it take for us to care what happens to these kids? Does one of your children have to be killed? Do we really have to let it get that far before we open our eyes to this nationwide epidemic?

  The answer is simple, no it doesn’t have to come to that…but often it does. Children cannot be held responsible for what their parents do or don’t have…they cannot help the fact that they do not have constructive avenues for their spare time. We cannot even say that they should get involved in extracurricular school activities…because our public schools have cut most of the Arts programs and even some of the sports…depending on how deep pocketed their particular school district is. Community centers could be the answer, but even that takes money…in a community that often cannot feed itself. This is where the problem arises, because we are all supposed to look out for each other. If we are ever going to live in harmony…we must reach out to each other.

  How can we expect children, the adults of the future, to be productive citizens if we are constantly showing them that “THEY” aren’t our problem? And sadly, the end result is an angry young adult; who will claim that he/she doesn’t care about anything. But most likely the real truth behind that anger is when the children ask themselves…why didn’t I ever matter to anyone? Can you imagine, being a child, and feeling like you aren’t good enough…which is his/her explanation as to why they have little or nothing?

 We, as a society, tend to only look down upon those that we feel fit a certain stereotypical group. How dare we be so obtuse in our way of thinking? Do we really think that there are people that deserve less than we do? I even heard someone tell me once that certain races are more genetically predisposed to violence than others. Ignorant statements such as these are toxic to the growth of our world.

  This is a continual cycle that spreads like an incurable disease…it seems almost hopeless. But the truth is…it is not hopeless. We weren’t born into darkness…we created or at the very least helped it grow. It is easy to shine God’s light on people…it doesn’t take millions of dollars. We start with one child at a time…give them acknowledgement, encouragement…for those of you that don’t know…that is called loving thy neighbor. For others it means wanting for my brother what I want for myself. What do we all want? What do we all need? Love…and it is our purpose and goal (or if not it should be) to love each other.

  Are your actions loving; even to those who do not know you intimately? Does your smile give others a reason to smile; or does it look rehearsed and in genuine? Do you even smile at all? If you find smiling difficult…find a reason to do it. Smile because you woke up today. Smile because someone looked at you kindly…or held a door open for you. Smile because someone else gave you a smile for no other reason than…to make your day brighter. Give that gift to another person…that…is LOVE.

And Time Moved On

       

And Time Moved On

Lately I am reflecting a lot on the execution of Troy Davis. I wish I wasn’t…I wish my heart wouldn’t hurt every time I say his name. I wish I had believed that he was ever going to escape lethal injection, I wish I had been let down by the parole/pardon board decision…but I wasn’t. I wasn’t let down because I never had enough faith in our “justice” system, to believe that they would halt the execution. I found even the postponement to be no more than drama that played out worse than a low budget, predictable sci-fi matinee movie. The state of Georgia killed Troy Davis, even though there was serious doubt that he was guilty. I think that the state and the general public just wanted for someone to pay for this heinous crime…and so someone did. Someone paid…I guess to the powers that be, it didn’t matter if Troy was the RIGHT someone. A terrible crime was committed, a police officer was killed…everyone was angry. I can understand anger. I get angry…I get angry when I cannot tell my child that Troy Davis had to pay his debt to society; because I doubt that the debt was his to pay.

  In a moment of irony I found this information:

 In March of 1988, the owner of a lumber yard was brutally killed. He was dragged and beaten with a crow bar, until his face was mutilated and he was eventually shot in the back of the head. This was a particularly gruesome event, even in relaying it I find it to be mentally and visually disturbing. For that, Samuel David Crowe pled guilty and admitted to the crime in its entirety and as a result he was sentenced to death. In 2008, the very same parole/pardon board in Atlanta, Georgia…the very same which rejected Troy Davis’ plea for clemency…commuted Crowe’s sentence to life without parole. And once again the scales tilt, maintaining the only constant that I have found…there is no balance. And still, the world keeps spinning, time doesn’t stop. That is…time for us didn’t stop, because on September 21, 2011 at 11:08pm…Troy Davis’ time ended here on our earth.

 Some wept; some said that it gave them the hope that peace would follow. Some felt justice had been served; others found that especially in this case…there was no justice found.

  For myself, I just couldn’t stop crying. I felt there was another soul that the world cast away. We had another chance to do the right thing and we let it slip through our fingers. I can tell you this much…I do not personally know if Troy Davis shot Mark MacPhail, but I can also say that I do not believe BEYOND a reasonable doubt that the state had cause to execute him either.

 So we take the wound that Officer MacPhail’s murder caused…and pour salt in it by killing Troy Davis. Healing can not happen that way. When we do unto others what they have done to us…it becomes barbaric. It becomes revenge, which just fuels the dark head of hate. So now not one, but two families will grieve. Two families lost a son…but we, as people, lost also. We lost our ability to see people…these were two breathing men, they had blood running through their veins, they had lives, both were important. And then there were none.

 I never met Troy Davis, he never uttered a single word to me…but every day my heart breaks for him. I feel a loss. I feel lost. Once again we allowed our government to decide the fate of another human being. We took a task, which only belongs to our creator, and made it our own. Such a sad event…and yet time keeps moving.

 It is my wish that we end the possibility of more stories like this. We must start cherishing life, and stop feeling like we are cornered into situations. WE must learn to love beyond our limits, think outside of the box; we must stop the violence. Whether it occurs in randomly selected heinous crimes, or in organized, socially acceptable court rooms…we are taking that which was never ours, and destroying it.

 Today, I rose above my tears; I prayed for the families of Mark MacPhail and Troy Davis. I prayed that in some way they will be able to move forward, without hate and resentment. I pray that God will make things easier for them. And I pray for all of us, life is precious…we should stop wasting it.