Tag: created

Affirming Prayer

I want to pray for you and affirm

As the ashes have just been smudged

On your forehead

And we feel a little fragile these days

With war, and pandemic and climate change

And racism

And transphobia and homophobia

And all the Ableism

And all the hate—

So much hate that it’s bitter on our tongues

And it polluted the air we breathe

And we can feel it—

trying to X us out of existence

Because hate hurts all of us;

Even as it tricks the hater into feeling powerful.

But anyway I’m praying that you..

Yes you, know that you

Are created in the image of God

Exactly as you are.

With all of your so called flaw

And imperfections

And differences,

Remember that our God is

Manifold, and that they

Love multiplicity and variety

And invented rainbows

And galaxies

And microbes we can’t even see—

So trust me, and be affirmed

Even in, especially in your fragility

That you are known, created and beloved

By God, exactly as your are

And take their blessings I’m your heart I pray.

Amen.

Feel free to use/share/adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta

Origin #Story or #mythic me

My Mythic Origin Story

(thanks to http://www.transmography.net/brainery/syllabus-schedule/science-fiction-fairy-tales-spring-2015/) class

Before she could even speak words
She listened
And before the word there were forms
and before that there was…something
Colossal collisions, implosions on the skin, bombarding, piercing the eyes and creeping into the ears.
Before she could even speak words, she started stringing things together. Understanding how the beads of space interacted.
Connection.
All things are connected, but how, and why. There must be meaning, even random events come together.
So she strove to name, first she named the things, then she strung those names with other things, but that wasn’t enough. Calling out a person’s name doesn’t tell anyone who they are. Names are just labels after all.
She knew here name was Katy, but after all, aren’t there millions of Katys in the universe? Being a Katy is good, but being her own unique version of Katy was more important.
Katy began to tell stories, to explain who she was is experiences and relationships, and then she discovered, by telling these stories, she was changing them. By trying to give names to things, the world itself is effected and changed.
Maybe that’s why our job is to name things, because the most effective way to influence the world is to tell the story of it, over and over again until we get it right. Whether it is naming the phenomena of the stars or struggling to name the hows and whats of an intricate relationship. Naming matters.
So she went forth, and Katy did talk, she talked and she talked and she talked to name as many things as possible.
And then she started listening, she listened to what others were naming–because when the naming spill into each other, thats when magic happens.