Icon viewers:
Attached find a short reflection/poem in response to the mass shootings last week and Christmas. 

Much good will to you as you continue to carry forth with the stimulating and challenging work of spreading words with meaning throughout the community and beyond!

Elizabeth Raid, formerly of Bluffton
3132 Royer West Drive,
Newton, Kansas, 67114 
[email protected]
316-282-2803

Reality, Grief, Hope

“This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!”

My morning mantra comes by rote rather than conviction.
A sip of orange ginger tea calms me, but only for a moment.
My spirit slides back into despair.
More mass shootings than days in the year!
Hundreds gunned down in our streets, cars, churches, homes, yes, even in our own beds!
Stark figures foster fear, hatred and hysteria.
This is my country? land of the free? land of the brave?
Reality reveals a land where denial deludes, where disillusionment and despair develop into rage--rampage, after rampage, after rampage. . .

In the gutter of grief, a glimmer of grace emerges, breaks forth into brilliance.
Hope prevails.
A Babe is born.
Jesus, Ultimate Love,
Comes again, again, and again. . .

Written December 3, 2015,
the morning after a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California
Elizabeth A. Raid