A series of mishaps…

Christmas 2010

                                          By: Cindy Matteson

A baby king to save the world?

The angel choir wasted on coarse, common shepherds?

A first time, unmarried, inexperienced mother?

A humiliated, humbled, ordinary father?

And this is how you chose to bring

the world together under this baby king.

In a series of mishaps, mistakes, and familiar things:

like hay and sheep

cloth and cold

tiny hands for a girl mama to hold.

Like songs and whispers

hums and tears

love that bolsters all our fears.

A series of mishaps?

Or, well planned irony?

Through a power not controlled by our mistaken priority.

Create in my heart

a common stable

to remind me all ways

of what you are able.

My Dog Prays

Our family dog Lilly loves the snow.  Even at her elderly age she begs to go out and chase her stick.  Of course that means me putting on my snow pants, boots, coat, hat and gloves.  Sometimes I don’t mind.  The other times I have to force myself to put on the heavy armor to battle the cold.  The dog teases enough to get me out the door.  She is quite passionate about her snow time.  Lately there has been a happy doggie at our house.  The snow has been plentiful.

Lilly finds her favorite stick and brings it near me.  As soon as I pick it up she is off to a “staging area” where she waits for me to loft the stick.  When she sees it land with a puff of white she bounds like a lion in the tall grass and pounces. She lies there chewing briefly, rolls in the snow, savors the texture of crunch against her back scratching her worries away.  Then she pauses, sniffs the air, looks and listens for any other creatures.  She seems to smile at the goodness of a new blanket of snow, the kingdom that has become her playground.

In her meditative state the dog embraces the crispness of nature born anew, the goodness of the day and the promises of the creator.  In her state of play she embodies the right order of creation and the mindset of right relationship; creature to creator.  The dog plays prayer.

And I wonder, do I have to chase a stick or roll in the snow to know what my dog seems to know about prayer?