advent journal: bells and borrowed words

December 24, 2007

1206

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.
(Leo Tolstoy)

I’m trying to get down to the heart of the matter
but the flesh is weak and my thoughts seem to scatter
bht I think it’s about forgiveness, forgiveness —
even if, even if you don’t love me anymore
(Don Henley)

The two quotes were from Ginger’s sermon today.

The poem below follows the pattern of Longfellow’s “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” one of my favorite carols.

I wish the bells on Christmas day
could toll and take our pain away
to ring out wrong and sound a song
to make our world feel whole again.

We’ve torn our hearts to shreds, it seems
and given up on most our dreams;
as wars persist we make our fists
and fight out of our fears again.

I’m not the first to bow my head,
knocked down by both my doubt and dread,
despite dismay I try to pray
that God would make us whole again.

The ring the bells, to my surprise,
“The change will not be planet-size,
you start with one and change can come
to make the world feel whole again.”

I thought how Mary’s gentle “Yes”
and Joseph’s ardent faithfulness
had birthed the boy and brought the joy
so heaven and nature sang again.

“Forgive, forgive,” that’s all I heard
and something in my spirit stirred;
I felt the tones deep in my bones
of how I might be whole again.

I wish the bells on Christmas Day
could toll and take our pain away,
but peace will come when one by one
we all learn to forgive again.