THE MIRROR

I look in the mirror
and sometimes I love
what I see and
there are other times
I don’t
However, there has never been
a time when I hated
what I saw so much
that I could slash my wrist
or poison myself
or want to leave this world behind.

When I look in the mirror
what I see is a reflection
of the Divine,
the one who created me,
the one who designed me
the one who tells me
you are beautiful just as you are.

When I look in the mirror
what I see is a reflection
of the Divine
of the one who is love,
is about healing
is about grace
is about wisdom and
is about listening.

When I look in the mirror
I pray for those who
do not see what I see
or feel what I feel.
I pray for those who see
something so painful
that leaving feels better
than staying

When I look in the mirror,
I remember to pray
for those
I know,
those I do not,
those who are whole and
those who are hurting,
those who have asked
for prayer
and those who have not
because we are all
a reflection
of the Divine

THE THANKS CONTINUE

Last week I wrote a letter to my Mom thanking her for being one of my spiritual and moral mentors. She and my Bubby are the first two, which came to my mind. As I have thought about all the spiritual and moral mentors in my life I have come to realize that while some of them were people I knew, others were people I have never met. Some of my teachers have been people who served as examples of how I did not want to be because I saw the harm they inflicted on others. Yet I need to give thanks to them as well, although I will not mention them by name as the lessons they taught me were decades ago and I would not want them to be judged, by this one incident.

This reminds me that Sister Helen Prejean, one of those women I have never met, taught me a valuable lesson. 

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