This season may your joy,
be seen and heard
may your eternal hope
in others be stirred.

May you offer to all,
peace and good cheer
may your delight
be made loud and clear.

This season may your joy,
cause you jubilation
may you share with all
God’s gift of salvation.

May you be filled,
with gladness and mirth
may you tell everyone
all about Jesus’ birth.

This season may your joy,
by all be observed . . .
may your elation
not be at all reserved!

~~~~~~~

Romans 15:13

Now the God of hope
fill you with all joy
and peace in believing,
that ye may abound in hope,
through the power
of the Holy Ghost.

King James Version
Public Domain

Copyright 2019
Deborah Ann Belka

After a long, silent period in nature on retreat I was filled with a sense of natural belonging. It is our birthright to be here breathing in the fresh air and letting the sun sink through our pores. The trees do not doubt their worth and I feel we could certainly take a leaf out of their books!

As We Are

No matter what, the fir trees stand

Their worth does not need proving

Majestic, verdant, tall and grand

No man their edge is smoothing

No matter what, the swallows swoop

Their ups and downs accepted

They do not have to jump through hoops

Pure freedom quite expected

No matter what, the wild palm shakes

Its rhythm wild and easy

You feel the pulsing that it makes

Seducing but not sleazy

No matter what, we too are here

Belonging without question

When we slow down it all seems clear

We…

I have been on the edge,
of complete, utter despair
I’ve looked over the ledge
not knowing what was there.

I’ve felt the bitter cold,
wrap me in it’s fearful grip
but, God had on me a hold
making sure I wouldn’t slip.

I have been to the threshold,
of total desperation
I’ve felt darkness enfold me
with fear and trepidation.

I’ve sensed the loom of doom,
engulf me with pure terror
but, God in the grasp of gloom
quelled my state of horror.

I have been on the edge,
of utter hopelessness
but, as I was on the ledge . . .
Jesus healed my brokenness!

~~~~~~~

2 Corinthians 4.8-10

We are troubled on every side,
yet not distressed;
we are perplexed, but not in despair;

Persecuted, but not forsaken;
cast down, but not destroyed;

Always bearing about in the body
the dying of the Lord Jesus,
that the…

Dear Poet,
I see you behind the blue ink
of your spilled heart
fallen
amidst words
that you meant to say,
but never did.

Dear Poet,
I see you…

In the  state between sleep and wake

traversing birth and death

there is the faintest hint of earthy candles

macabre dreams interrupted by the

strophe of sonnets, a sensation of

spilling pearls like tiny moons falling

through my open palm.

At the boundaries I find you

not your spirit or  rose tinged snow

but flesh and bone.

I am sleeping less now

roused by the wing beats of boreal owls

circling an   ancient Cypress,

their knife edge talons entwined in sprays

of silky moss clinging to  knotty branches.

Fitful wind gusts burst through  barriers of

creaking walls vibrating my hemispheres into

consciousness.  A  celestial  tapestry of recollection

lifts  me over  the valley to a  moonlit hillside

of sweet lea where a silver wolf lies down  beside me.

He is the scent of golden wheat and

his eyes are the color of the eastern sky.

Emperor Hirohito, on white horse, January 1940

Japanese public broadcast service, NHK has obtained documents showing that former Emperor Hirohito repeatedly felt sorry about World War II and tried, unsuccessfully, to express his feelings by using the word “remorse” in a 1952 speech.

The records of conversations with Hirohito spanning several years were kept by Michiji Tajima, a top Imperial Household Agency official who took office after the war.

Although it’s not surprising that Hirohito had deep regrets about the war, the documents highlight how painfully strong such emotions had been.

Journals and notebooks kept by Michiji Tajima, a former top Imperial Household Agency, are seen in Tokyo on Monday, Aug. 19, 2019.
KYODO NEWS VIA AP

The Imperial Household Agency declined to comment on the report.

As he was preparing his 1952 speech at a ceremony to commemorate Japan’s return to independence with the end of the U.S. occupation…