response VIDEO
my video response to our weekend in Chicago is on line now at our other site. Go here to view the video in pieces. In some sense it captures alot of the "feelings" of the weekend which was amazing...I am still reeling for all the things I stumbled on to. Wow! See Doug's poem below...

Hoping to go to this conference before I leave: The Eyes of the Heart June 21-23.

------------------------------------------------

What if I could see beneath these faces?

I might see summer streets filled with double-dutch beat,
shoes shuffling, and laughter- maybe might see the resilient smile of a child,
hair braided with plastic beads and her Sunday best…
What if I could listen to their song?

“Were you there when they gentrified my Lord?
Were you there when they gentrified my Lord?
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble,
tremble...”
Can I really hear beneath these cries?
Can I hear their Dream and still dare to see the stain of pride in me
creeping;
creeping into the corners of our white
picket homes- fences creeping inside our bones,
creeping into every system of power?

The city still speaks, God is in her midst and she will not be shaken!
Like a homeless soul weathered by indifference;
our human frailty sheltered like warm soup, bread and a bed to sleep in;
You did not have a home.
And the city groans, the city groans for her Lord:
the homosexual longing for the approval of his Father, alleyways aching for someone to hold them, the Muslim man wondering at Wonder?

“Allahu akbar! Allahu akbar!”

What would happen if I could really see-
beneath this greatness, beneath these faces, beneath the confusion and the moment?
Not beyond the moment itself, but within the moment; ache.
What if my vision were beyond
my horizon? If my reach were beyond
my grasp?

Beneath these dreams aches
a delicate light-
the still shine of raw music
you whisper vision
in me;
the power of the blood.
You are here
with me and all is
gone.

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

I am letting go, I am falling
Into this paschal mystery:

“How does the lion lay with the lamb and still be a lion?”

I am so confused but I love you so much.

by Doug Shepherd
- posted by Jacob B. @ 1:52 PM