…mourning and great weeping,
weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.
from Matthew 2:18 and Jeremiah 31:15
Newtown, CT December 2012
There are the fields we’ll walk across
In the snow lightly falling.
In the snow lightly falling,
There are the fields we’ll walk across.
There are the houses we’ll walk toward
In the snow lightly falling.
In the snow lightly falling,
There are the houses we’ll walk toward.
There are the faces we once kissed
In the snow lightly falling.
In the snow lightly falling,
There are the faces we once kissed.
Incredible how we laughed and cried
In the snow lightly falling.
In the snow lightly falling,
Incredible how we laughed and cried.
Incredible how we’ll meet again
In the snow lightly falling.
In the snow lightly falling,
Incredible how we’ll meet again.
No small hand will go unheld
In the snow lightly falling.
In the snow lightly falling,
No small hand will go unheld.
No voice once heard is ever lost
In the snow lightly falling.
In the snow lightly falling,
No voice once heard is ever lost.
~Dick Allen “Solace”
In mourning for the families of Uvalde, Texas
There is no comfort for these families.
Their arms ache with emptiness,
their childrens’ beds and pillows cold tonight,
dolls and stuffed animals awaiting all night hugs
that will never come again.
There is no earthly consolation;
only mourning and great weeping,
sobbing that wrings dry
every human cell,
leaving only dust behind,
which is our beginning
and our end.
Christ came to us
for times such as this,
born of the dust of woman and
the breath of Spirit.
God bent down to
be cradled in barn dust,
walk on roads of dust,
die and be laid to rest as dust
to conquer such evil as this –
the slaughter and massacre of innocents.
He became dust to be
like us
He began a mere speck in a womb
like us
His heart beat
like ours
breathing each breath
like ours
until a fearful fallen world
took His
and our breath
away.
He shines His Light through
the darkness of tragic deaths
to guide our stumbling uncertain feet.
His tender mercies flow freely
when there is no consolation,
when there is no comfort.
He hears our cries
as He cried too.
He knows our tears
as He wept too.
He knows our mourning
as He mourned too.
He knows our dying
as He died too.
God wept as this happened yesterday.
Evil comes not from God
yet humankind embraces it.
Sin is our ongoing choice,
a decision made from our beginning,
but we can choose to end it now.
Only God can glue together
what evil has shattered.
He asks us to hand Him
the pieces of our broken hearts,
abandon our evil ways
and sin no more.
We will know His peace
when He comes
to bring us home,
our tears finally dried,
our cells no longer just dust,
as we are glued together
by the word and breath and voice
of God forevermore.
the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.
Luke 1: 78-79
Barnstorming 
There are no human words or thoughts that I can add here, dear Emily.
You and Dick Allen have expressed heartfelt, intimate comments about what
it is that can be said and felt about the death, the temporary loss of those dear persons, so loved and so involved in our lives — those faithful companions on our earthly Journey. As believing Christians, we have the solace — the true innate gifts of hope and thanksgiving — that we, too, will one day tread that final journey HOME – to His waiting arms where we will find forever Peace and Joy among ALL of our loved ones and friend-companions.
We must never falter in believing Jesus’ Promises to His faithful followers – then and now. They are the sinew, the golden, the ironclad, the irrevocable connection that we have as part of our Faith and Belief. Jesus’ Father came to Him when He cried out, feeling temporarily abandoned and lost in darkness as he hung dying on that crucifixion tree two millennia ago. When we feel lost and alone- forgotten, and even terrified on our final journey through death’s doors, HE WILL COME TO US, AS HE PROMISED, AND BRING US ‘BACK’ TO OUR TRUE, FOREVER HOME.
Nothing — nothing — that the ‘World’ says or does to us can ever change, alter, or deny Jesus’ Promises to us.
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Alice, Thank you, always, for your wisdom in times of trouble. Emily
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Emily, this is my Comment #2 on your words today.
I had not yet read about the Texas murders, but
what you wrote addresses our shock, grief, ANGER,
and helplessness about this latest atrocity — another act
of willful, pre- planned savage evil that is sweeping our country now and for the recent past,
to which we are becoming dangerously inured!
This continuing onslaught seems to be almost a daily or weekly event –
perpetrated by hate-filled persons, young and old, whose
mind and innate being are saturated with Satanic thinking and
acting that is part of a growing anti-democracy, anti-God, anti-‘other (color,
accent, religion, etc.) nationwide movement.
My overall name for this evil has been and continues to be: ‘Spiritual Warfare.’
For now, this appears as small, united groups of haters in our Congress and other leadership
forums, and among our citizenship who kill without mercy or logic but with pure hatred for ‘the other,’ among other reasons.
The only ‘weapon,’ the only way that we can meet and overcome this evil challenge
among our communities, our nation and, yes, the world, is to fall on our knees in supplication,
asking Jesus the Christ to intercede (once again) and come to our aid as we ask for His forgiveness with profound love and obedience to His teachings, recognition and thanksgiving for His monumental redeeming Sacrifice over two thousand years ago.
Thank you, dear Emily for your trenchant, loving thoughts.
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Thank you Emily, there are no words, so just listening to the music and song soothes.
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Achingly beautiful words, Emily. I pray that families can find a glimmer of peace and accept it from God in this unimaginable time.
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