Past imperfect

If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.” – Buddha

Confess your imperfections, write them on a wall for all the world to see. Use big, bold strokes, in brutal black paint, where it cannot be ignored. Admit to every flaw, every shortcoming. Reveal your darkest lies and faults.

Yet… leave it unsigned.

Watch as the world passes by, watch as they read your words and see your images. Listen as they speculate about who is the author of these admissions, listen as they speak the names of those they believe are guilty.

Yet… you are not among the accused.

No one recognizes you. Only you see these perceived failings.

The 100 Word Challenge is to tell a story in only 100 words. This week’s theme is ‘Wall’

Inspired by the Studio30 Plus prompt “Imperfect“

Back in the black

It was another one of those days. You know the kind… the hurrieder I go, the behinder I get.

You feel like you’re moving at warp speed, but everything around you is slogging along in slow motion. Every time I thought I was close to closing a contract – Boom! Another damn miracle conversion.

Doesn’t matter that it was all self-serving, they all are. As soon as someone utters those words, my claim is void. There should be rules of engagement, a gentleman’s agreement against poaching another man’s quarry.

I’ve got quotas to fill and I was hella behind.

Then you showed up, and it was like a gift from heaven. See what I did there… I slay me!

If it wasn’t so pathetic, watching you sweat, it would’ve been funny. No matter how hard you tried to get out of hot water, the deeper you sank. All I had to do was turn up the heat a little, and I was back in the black.

Your cursed day turned out to be my lucky one.

The Trifecta challenge this week is: Lucky [adj. \ˈlə-kē\] 3: producing or resulting in good by chance; favorable

Mad love

It’s not boxes of gooey candy, or bouquets of fragrant roses. It’s not decadent, chocolate dipped berries, or silky red lingerie, nor drug store cards declaring your everlasting love.

It’s calling from a business trip to tell me ‘good morning’ even when you’re two hours earlier. It’s cleaning out the cat’s litter box because you know how much I hate that chore. It’s pushing me out the door on the weekends so I can have some ‘me time’ without guilt.

It’s that comfortable silence between us that says so much, and inside jokes that still make me smile. The text messages that make me blush and the looks that make me swoon.

It’s making me laugh until I can’t breathe, and loving me hard enough that it takes my breath.

It’s the little things that tell me I am loved every day, and not just one day out of the year.

When love is not madness, it is not love.” ~ Pedro Calderon de la Barca

Submitted to WordPress Daily Prompt. The theme was to “write an ode to someone or something you love”

*Photo venue: bridge graffiti near Ebro, FL

all they knew…

All they knew, they learned from us.

Our children are our responsibility. As parents, it’s our job to teach them how to be caring, compassionate adults.

We teach them through our words – through the words we use when we talk to them, to their other parent, to our friends and extended family – even when we don’t believe they can understand or aren’t listening to what we say. Children are mirrors. They reflect what is shone to them.

We teach them through our actions – how we treat them and other people. Are we tolerant, understanding, thoughtful, and kind?

We teach our children bigotry and hate when we don’t stop it at home. When we allow ignorant speech and violence, no matter how slight or insignificant we believe it to be, we are teaching our children that we accept such behavior.

Rationalizing bullying or prejudice by saying that “we were teased as children and we grew up fine.” – maybe we didn’t. If you believe it’s acceptable for your child to be cruel and brutal to another child, for whatever reason, maybe you aren’t “fine.”

We need to teach our children to stand up for what is right, to protect their friends and family.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing” ~ Edmund Burke

Hypothetical religion

Hypothetically, let’s say Jesus never went to Jerusalem. He was never sentenced to die, or He was secreted out of the city by His devoted disciples. He continued to preach, teach and spread His message until He died of natural causes at an advanced age.

Would Christianity still be a worldwide religion, or would it have died with Jesus?

The biggest conflict I have with my faith, isn’t believing or not believing that Jesus died and was resurrected. It’s just wanting to know why He had to died in the first place and in the manner He did. Why was being the Son of God not enough?

I’m not debating His deity, not denying Him being the earthly Son of God. What I want to know, what no one has been able to articulate to me, is… what did His dying change? I know the biblically annotated responses, I want the historical, the cultural, the actual effect.

Up until the point of His death and resurrection, what did people of that era believe they had to do, what ritual or offering had to be made, to secure entrance into the Kingdom of God? It certainly wasn’t the simple profession of faith that is required now.

I’ve read the stories about Jesus’ anger at the money changers in the temple. That they were selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifice. (My religious education tells me it wasn’t the sacrifices He objected to, but rather selling animals and exchanging money inside the temple.)

Was the pathway into heaven through blood sacrifice? Even in the story of Cain and Abel, Abel’s offering from his flock was favored over Cain’s offering of crops. Is it the brutality of religion what no one is willing to discuss? Was the death of Jesus the ultimate ritual killing? Through His death, was the need for further sacrifice eliminated?

This question has taunted me for many years, and I don’t expect to find the answer any time soon. Until I do, I can only live my life as best I can, hoping I’m doing something right.

Side note:
I’m amused by people who want to rail about the rationality of religion. Saying that people of faith are weak-minded lemmings who are merely worshipping an imaginary friend in the sky. It’s no more irrational than believing that the entire universe, as vast and ever-expanding that it is, was created by some microscopic, spontaneous explosion.

Until the end of time

Unconditionally

When I was a teenager, I was active in my church youth group. We were lucky in that we had an advisor who let us ask him about anything. We were able to talk with him and each other about topics that often our parents avoided at all costs.

I still remember one discussion we all had about ‘love’ and that there were really only three kinds.

I love you if…  you have sex with me. I love you if you do what I tell you to do. I love you if you change for me. I love you if you keep promising to stop cheating on me, stop beating me, stop lying to me.

I love you because… you have money and will buy me anything I ask for. I love you because you have a great body… beautiful face… nice car. I love you because I don’t deserve better.

If one aspect of your relationship changes, then love ends. If the sex or gifts stop, it’s over. If you gain weight or if your looks fade or are damaged… love is gone. Because you begin to believe you are worth more, love demands more.

Then there is Love in Spite of…

I love you in spite of all your funny little quirks. I love you in spite of your gapped-tooth grin, in spite of your muffin top, your scars, your past, your ghosts…

When you can love ‘in spite of,’ beyond the ‘ifs’ and ‘becauses,’ that’s when you accept the real person, warts and all, and love them and not what they can do for you, or what they give you, or only what you see on the surface.

To me all this meant that when I found real love it should not have conditions attached. That real love saw deeper than the surface, and further than what was in it just for me.

I did find that sort of love. I am with a man who has loved me for more than half my life and who I know will love me for the rest of my life. It’s unconditional and that’s how I love him, it’s how we love our children.

It’s how I love my friends and family. I may not always agree with them, I may not always LIKE them, but I would still offer any help I can if they need me, unconditionally.

Spilling it all

Submitted as part of Shell’s “Pour Your Heart Out” writing prompt at Things I Can’t Say. Please stop by to read the other posts, and give a little comment love.

Breaking down walls

Stay off the wall

Take a stand, speak out
Silence is no decision
Climb down from your wall

5, 7, 5

Haiku Friday is hosted by Lou at LouCeeL.

What will you stand up for?

This Sunday I’ll be standing up in support of JCPenney’s decision to keep Ellen Degeneres as their spokesperson. To find out how to join in, check out Deb’s post here: Dancing with Ellen…