Monday, June 24, 2013

Mother Marys

   Meredith and I started a church group called Mother Marys, where young, pregnant women can come into the house of God and pray for their unborn miracles.  We wanted to reach out and help those who have gone down the path of the unrighteous--bring them to see that their pleasures were sins and that to gain salvation, they must repent and pray for a blessed future.
   Many told us we were foolish--that the youth were an unreachable herd that had strayed too far from its shepherd.
   Yet we have been successful with thirteen young women these past three months.
   Those who doubted us asked how we did it.  How could we touch the hearts and souls of the far gone?
   We were once them--one of the forlorn--one of the damned.  I had no husband, Meredith is my daughter, and her daughter's only father is the Lord.  We are Mother Marys.  And we will carry on His work.

Monday, June 17, 2013

Be Careful What You Wish For

   As he walked down the crowded sidewalk, briefcase in hand, Rasheed's head spun round and round like an otter swimming loops through a river.  He raised his hand to steady his brow, and he wished that God would kneel down and pluck his head right off his shoulders like a child would a flower from its stem.
   Two weeks Rasheed had suffered in this way.  And, two weeks he had whispered gently to himself, promising that all will soon be righted.  The world and his body would soon be realigned.
   God heard Rasheed's wish and chuckled a rumble through the sky.  He searched for Rasheed as He walked across the clouds, darkening them with His shadow.  He had heard Rasheed's troubled whispers and had become amused with the young businessman's thoughts.
   There was much yet to be done in this young man's life, yet God knew that the pain Rasheed hoped would dissipate would only pass with death.  Rasheed would become very successful in the next couple of years, provided he can overcome the temptation of insurmountable greed in the coming spring.
   God watched Rasheed closer.
   When spring came, a dark, cloudy day watched as Rasheed accepted a briefcase of laundered money in exchange for his silence.
   As Rasheed waited to cross the busy street, he again wished for God to put an end to the pain inside his head.  He wanted to enjoy himself and celebrate his lucky day without this dreadful, incessant ache.
   God heard Rasheed and agreed that it was the man's lucky day, for his pain would end once he took his seventh step across Booker Street.

Monday, June 10, 2013

The Unseen

   Many days before the first spring flower bloomed, the sun rose to meet a damp and dark morning.  The shipmen stretched their way to the docks, and the merchants tallied their books.  
   All around them the crumbling stone walls are silent and cold, waiting to be admired once again for their regality, but the wind just bends the leaves of grass, brushes through the sand, and chills the passersby.  

Monday, June 3, 2013

Letters from A.R.E., Seventh of Seven, 30 July 18--

Truly, if you were but a gentleman, I could address your latest letter in courteous terms, yet I find myself unable to even extend an amiable greeting!  This hackneyed display of incessant passion and devotion does not convince me even in the slightest of its sincerity.  You, my dear sir, I am now sure--hearing from a mutual acquaintance just before receiving your post--have never in your some five and thirty years expressed any emotion in truth.  Therefore, I am forced to deduce that this is all a rouse and not to be taken to heart, as a result, can you be astonished with my reaction of nothing less than hostility?  I will not be played as a doll, and I will not 'grace you' as you say, with my presence this coming season.  I wish you a bon vie, monsieur. --A.R.E.