Even So. -jb


Halleluiah from the heavens
Halleluiah in the heights above the earth
Halleluiah all his angels
Halleluiah for the last will be first

Let everything
That has breath
Praise the Lord

Halleluiah in the morning
Halleluiah For the beauty of his scars
Halleluiah In the twilight
Halleluiah Sun and moon and shining stars

Let everything
That has breath
Praise the Lord

When the night seems so long
Through Your hands to the sky
You can sing a new song
Wipe the tears from your eyes
When you’re weak He is strong
He can heal your wounded soul
And Calm the storm inside

For all your times of laughter
And every hopeful prayer
When the world weighs shoulders
Through the sorrow in your despair

With everything
With every breath
Praise the Lord

Let everything
That has breath
Praise the Lord


-With Every Breath
Leigh Nash and Dan Haseltine
City On A Hill 

 

Descending Lines
Subversing rhymes
Unsustained movements
Of counter melodies.

To Misdirect
Those that LISTEN the best
From the true
Suspended divest

Spikes of highs
That blind the eyes
To infatuated lies
In beautiful disguise

Deeper it goes
From Shallow coves
To the darkened turf
Of hallowed foes

And on the surface
All is calm
The words are right
Inspired song

But underneath
Asserted speaks
To all that submits
To unspeakable repose
 

 

Snowflake

White and crystal
Shaped and structured
Dances with Gravity
Descends with Destiny

Sent from the Heavens
A gift of perspective
To awe and inspire
For just a little while

Comes unexpected
Often unwanted
Inconvenient
Lives interrupted

Specific Environments
With Natural Habitats
By nature intolerant
To volatile fluctuations

Temperature is truth
To those who melt in their youth
For Heat drives the answer
Of suspected surrender

To touch is destruction
From created intention
To have is impossible
Unless defeated is gravity
 

  For those who have suffered loss this week.
I was given this poem that expresses the unexpressable.
Author Unknown. -jb




To Those I Love

If I should ever leave you whom I love
To go along with Silent Way, grieve not,
Nor speak of me with tears, but laugh
and talk of me as if I were beside you there.

(I'd come-I'd come, could I but find a way!
But would not tears and grief be barriers?)

And when you hear a song or see a bird
I loved, please do not let the thought of me
Be sad... For I am loving you just as I always
have... You were so good to me! There are so
Many things to say to you...
Remember that I did not fear...
It was Just leaving you that was so hard to face...
We cannot see Beyond...
But this I know: I loved you so-
twas heaven here with you!

 

 


Fully Known
Completely forgiven
It's hard to reach the finish line
Without a legitimate beginning

Truth is the foundation
For love's emancipation
It Points us in direction
Of reconciliation

And if we have the courage
To lay it on the line
The world it opens up for us
And pushes back the time

Then we see the lesser things
Hidden in the chatter
Things of hope's connectedness
Things that truly matter
 

  I was surprised by this email that I received from a young lady in Nashville.
It's funny how we are all connected. I posted a letter sent by a friend of a friend at Notre Dame who I don't know that ended up helping someone else that I don't know. WOW. All Praise to Him who Reigns on High!



Dear JB,
Well, first I\'ll say I think God had something to do with it. Then I will thank you for posting a reflection on your Jan. 04 Brown Blog page, by a Beau Schweitzer. I have been applying to work with kids in healthcare in Latin America, place to be determined yet. I was trying to read what I could about one place, Guiamaca, Honduras. I Googled that and got your Brown Blog since Beau had mentioned Guiamaca in his article. You had said it was long but worth the read. I took your suggestion and started to skim, but I went back and read the entire thing and was touched. It was so enjoyable and touching to read that I emailed Beau out of the blue to possibly learn from his experience in Honduras and mission work. Surprisingly, to which I credit the Spirit, he emailed back enthusiastically. He asked for a #, and thinking it had to be safe to give to someone who dedicated 2 years of his life to little kids there, building the kingdom of God, I gave it. He called yesterday and shared for 1 1/2 hours, which was very helpful. He was amused that his writing had made it to the web somehow, and said he didn\'t know the Brown Blog or you. However, he did go to Notre Dame and I think did the Catholic Educators (ACE?) program in LA for a few years. He just happened to be still in the States for Christmas and called from Montana, in fact. So long and short, I have to thank you for posting that great piece.
In addition, I\'m impressed by your visually and aurally appealing website. I\'m still figuring out who you may be and your music. I don\'t know much in the Christian music realm, but I am in Nashville with good friends who listen a lot. Thanks, Happy New Year, and God fill you with grace, love, and good songs! JB (Julie) Nashville, TN, Latin America bound.
 

 


Faces on the tv
Stories in the air
Meant to fill us in
Exploiting our despair

Shocking's what we want
Gruesome's even better
Forgetting that the victims
Get a nicely worded letter

I'm laughing when I shouldn't be
Pointing cause I can
The humor takes a different turn
When the story's close at hand

I stop and think and realize
And wonder where it went
Compassion, hope, and tenderness
Have all of these been spent

I'm a loving person
I think that I am good
So why am I emotionless
When death is understood

 

 

You'll take your measurements
And I'll do my probing
But in the end we'll find
That we're both just hoping

Hoping to find
Some peace in our minds
A way we can bind
To someone who's kind

Someone who'll listen
And someone who cares
Enough to forgive
Enough to bear

Is it forgotten
In moments of boast
It can't be forgotten
When I need you the most

So much time in construction
Of walls of protection
Walls of decision
Of passive separation

I fight misconception
What we're supposed to be doing
Edification
For the body's perfection

To love is to focus
On things above
To have is to struggle
To focus on Love
 

 

Shiny Things

How Long Must I make you Wait
Before I turn around and Go Your Way
Cause It seems like Forever and a Day
Since I said that I would stop and make a change

But I see so many Shiny Things
And I like to pick them up and play
But the only serve to separate
Me from you

I read where you would used to say, That you would never forsake
And nothing, nothing could separate, Me from your hand
But I wonder does that include me
And all the things that I like to do and say

Can I lose the thing you died to give
By going my own way, and living how I want to live

But I see so many Shiny Things
And I like to pick them up and play
But the only serve to separate
Me from you

 

 

Slowly she Moves
In epic Surrender
Her Head to the Pillow
No more a pretender

Instinctive Conversations
Begin honest communication
As Sarah sings redemption
From inexpressable tension

And for the moment it's perfect
For the Time it is well
But fear sneaks a handle
And sounds the warning bell

Too long to have known
The Time of False tones
That deafened is the ear
To the love that is here

So off to the races
Of defensable spaces
Better to control
Than unknownly roam

But deep threre's a shimmer
Of hope in its glimmer
She used to belive
But can she remember
 

 

the other side of me

i don’t think you’ll ever feel the way i do about the april rain
happiness is reckoning the tie that binds our crazy and our sane
hopelessness comes quietly upon the bed of nails in which we lay
and silence becomes deafening echoing the shadows of dismay

i hope you learn to see beyond the other side of me
and i hope you find a way to live beyond your means
and i hope that you standing tall beside the open crystal see
and then you’ll be free

standing there, stronger than steel you smile and conceal your pain
suddenly I’m overwhelmed and struggle to remember who to blame
dancin round the empty room i stumble on the gifts i gave in vain
i contemplate fatality and then focus on the love that still remains

and i hope i learn to see the beyond the other side of me
and i hope i find a way to live beyond my means
i hope that I’m standing tall beside the open crystal sea
and then you’ll be free
then you’ll be free 

 


They say we’ll live forever
But it’s hard to understand
How forgiveness can recover
The innocence of man

I see you stand beside me
As we follow hand in hand
And I wonder how our lives will be
When we’re standing at the end

I just can’t remember
What it’s like to be a child
I was hoping you could show me
How to make this fear subside

Facing down forever
Is an overwhelming task
It takes the courage of a child
To live without a mask

 

 


sometimes it feels like this world’s on your shoulders
like you work hard and never get ahead
keep looking for that glimpse of sunny weather
but the storm clouds keep hanging over instead

and you cried more than once about the weekend
worried that you’ll always be alone
i wish i could make you see that your life will get better
and make you know that i believe in you

so hold on
love will see you through
hold on
i will wait for you

there is a time and a place for all this mourning
even when no one around you understands
cause heartache knocks your door without a warning
desperate times often lend no helping hand

just remember that your hear will keep on beating
and soon you’ll learn to stand and walk again
and life won’t seem quite as big of burden
and living will again become a friend

so hold on
love will make it through to you
hold on
i won’t give up on you
no, i won’t give up on you


 

 

Proverbs 13:12

Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.