One Small Thing

El Salvadoran mural featuring Monsenor Oscar Romero by Allison McKeller, December 7, 2007

I am delighted to report that the Friends Journal will publish my “Sweet Baby Jesus” on December 1st!

And that of the four choices I’d offered for the article’s accompanying illustration, they chose this mural! My favorite. Yes, it depicts sweet baby Jesus. (I love that his swaddling clothes are green. As in verdant, growing, life-giving.) And offers a visual tribute to liberation theology, referenced in my piece.

But to look at this mural, the same week asylum-seekers were tear-gassed at our border, is to be again reminded of Oscar Romero’s murder. We remember the upheavals and horrors of Central America—and our country’s role in those upheavals and horrors. We remember why people seek asylum. We remember.

 

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2 Comments

  1. Dearest Patricia,

    Well, hi, there, Patricia, my so, so very FOR ALWAYS awesomely precious and dearly special soul sistahfriend Christian Quaker woman who you’re FOR ALWAYS so, so very much and I so want to say again to you and for you and FOR ALL OF YOU AND YOURS A VERY HAPPY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND ALSO TO SAY A VERY HAPPY NEW YEARS, sister!!!!!! 🙂 HEART!!!!!!! I have had such comfort with continuing to not feel so, so very well just enjoying so, so very much our wonderful sisterhood and friendship, dearest Patricia, and so, so very often looking at and reading the beautiful Christmas card which you very kindly sent to me and all of the other awesome cards which you’ve sent to me-I save cards for I am very sentimental!!!!!! Sisterfriend, WOW, I am delighted to have had the very great joy and blessing to eagerly read your brilliant, beautifully brilliant and very compelling article in the Friends Journal. What a blessed gift for me and for very many other of your readers as well to be uplifted in our walk with Spirit from this very salient, succinct, cogent, and very relevant article here. I absolutely LOVE all of your great article in all of its very enlightening entirety. I love the very applicable quote from Marcus Borg when he shared and declared with these very fine words, “Believing In Jesus does not mean believing doctrines about him. Rather, it means to give one’s heart, one’s self at its deepest level, to the poster-Easter Jesus who is the living Lord, the side of God turned toward us, the face of God, the Lord who is also Spirit.” What very true words here about Spirit here, sistah, my dear, dearest, precious, darling friend, Patricia!!!!! Your words in regard to this very sagacious quote from him are very apt as well as you share and declare in these very empowering, emboldening, and inspirational words, “But perhaps, at Borg’s suggestion, I should say “believe in,” as that verb’s Greek and Latin roots mean “giving one’s heart to.” Your very words in your illuminating article provide such a healing balm for me and quench my very thirst for our Spirit, my darling Patrcia!!!!! As well, I just so LOVE all of your very heartfelt blog post article in all of its grand totality, my so, so very kind sister and friend, Patricia!!!!!! The accompanying illustration is just perfect, absolutely perfect and picture-perfect, my friend!!!!! I so appreciate how you’ve here as usual as always once again as ever have very graciously and generously feature and include such informative and interesting links with your very insightful so, so very chock full of such clarity writing, my awesome and wonderful sistahfriend, Patricia!!!! I, too, remember the very deeply holy and committed Oscar Romero and how he was very heinously murdered. Also, I remember all of the upheavals an d horror of Central America as you very wisely share and declared here and our country’s role in those very dire and vile circumstances, my so, so very right on sisterfriend with this very vitally urgent, important, and necessary clarioin call here straight from your so, so very beautiful, special, and precious heart and spirit, my and our so, so very right on, wondrously wonderful, so, so very FOR REAL anti-racist white woman sisterfriend who you’re FOR ALWAYS so, so very much, Patricia!!!!!! We know all too well why the darling people seek asylum. It is absolutely horrifying what the dearest folks have faced, endured, and experienced, and continue to face, endure, and experience with such evil hate, oppression, racism, and discrimination, dearest Patricia!!!!!!

    Sister, I am FOR ALWAYS grateful and so, so very full of such appreciation expressing such gratitude for all of my overflowing, bountiful joys and blessings which I FOR ALWAYS very eagerly and delightfully delight in at this time of the new year fast approaching and FOR ALWAYS!!!!! I so, so very much FOR ALWAYS love and cherish our SO, SO VERY SWEET SPIRIT!!!!! I so, so very much love and cherish each and every one of you in my very life and my very heart everywhere both near and far FOR ALWAYS AND I just so, so very much love and cherish all of Spirit’s children as my darling, dearest, precious, and special sisters and brothers everywhere!!!!!! Sister, YOU ARE FOR ALWAYS my very life’s and eternal joys and blessings, darling, dear Patricia!!!!!! YOUR steadfast friendship and sisterhood mean so, so very much for me all of these nearly five years, Patricia!!!!!!! YOU have been such a joy and blessing for me and for my very heart and spirit and help so, so very much with my walk with our Spirit!!!!!!! While I’ve continued to struggle with my constantly very bad, permanent, and chronic flaring up physical disabilities with the accompanying very bad, permanent, and chronic flaring up pain and chronic fatigue and physical medical issues YOU and your sisterhood and friendship have been such a comfort for me and help me to keep my very faith and hope alive with such a sweetly abiding and enduring positive optimism. In these nearly five years when we’ve been writing to one another in the snail mail and with me writing to your very spectacular blog in these nearly five years I’ve grown so, so very much in Spirit as a Christian woman, as a human being, and I’ve been so, so very incredibly blessed by YOU, sister, and continue to find my very voice and my boldness. YOU, Patricia, have so, so very much helped me and very many other folks as well to continue to resist, interrupt, and persists in these dire times as we will never ever lose heart, never ever lose spirit, and never ever lose Spirit with your very empowering presence and voice reaching out toe each and every one of us!!!!!! Patricia, YOU ARE just the absolutely very greatest and the very best and such the very, very epitome of such overall AWESOMENESS, sister!!!!! YOU ARE FOR ALWAYS my and our very life’s and eternal joy and blessing, my and our so, so very wonderful friend, Patricia!!!!!! I, and we, FOR ALWAYS just so, so very much love and cherish YOU, Patricia, so, so very much FOR ALWAYS!!!!!!! 🙂 HEART!!!!!!!

    Sisterfriend, please have such a superbly super Sunday, such a wondrously wonderful rest of your weekend and week ahead, and again Happy Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and for you and for all of you and yours, my and our marvelous, splendid Patricia, and may all of your very days be so, so very especially blessed!!!!! Spirit so, so very much loves and cherishes YOU FOR ALWAYS, Patricia, and I, and we, all love and cherish YOU so, so very much FOR ALWAYS!!!!!!! 🙂 HEART!!!!!!!

    Very Warmly and Sincerely FOR ALWAYS, my so, so very FOR ALWAYS awesomely special and dearly precious soul sistahfriend Christian Quaker white woman who you’re FOR ALWAYS SO, SO VERY MUCH, Patricia, with My and
    Spirit’s very Peace and Love FOR YOU FOR ALWAYS, sisterfriend, AND WITH SUCH BLESSINGS AND SUCH VERY EVEN MORE BLESSINGS FOR YOU FOR ALWAYS, sister, 🙂 HEART!!!!!!!

    YOURS FOR ALWAYS soul sistahfriend Christian black woman FOR ALWAYS in the very great spirit of unity and solidarity, Sherry Gordon in Iowa City, Iowa 🙂 HEART!!!!!!!

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