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The Reason For The Season

Christmas comes with caroling and children’s cherished smiles,
colored lights and visitors who venture ‘cross the miles.
The morning of the twenty-fifth we eagerly await.
Presents wrapped in red and green we so anticipate.

For some, believing in the gift that oh so long ago
was born into a manger makes the heart intensely glow.
Yet you, like me, may pause each year as holidays approach
and touch within an emptiness as memories encroach.

The reason for the season we’re not able to embrace.
Instead of joy and merriment, with dread it is we face
the shopping and the baking, Christmas cards and letters too.
Even parties hold no fun when just a “gotta-do”.

How, we ask sincerely, can we know the season’s joy?
What’s the secret buried deep within each girl and boy?
No doubt it is the essence of the generous Spirit true
that lives within each child, man, and woman, in us too!

Giving always, ever, oh so freely to us all:
Spirit unencumbered is the reason we are called
to take time out each Christmas to remember once again
the child born in a manger: Love and Joy our next of kin.

By Jeanne Loehnis, 2007

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The Process

Release the old, release and trust.
On wings of God, fly I must
to the future yet unknown.
Release with love; God’s way be shown.

Aware within of emptiness.
No longer living in the past.
Not yet sure of that to come.
Searching for the pathway home.

Round the corner, now I see
my future clear in front of me.
New directions grace the day.
Pursuing, I, the Guided way.

By Jeanne Loehnis, 2004

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The Perfect Time

Tune in to what’s left unsaid
after all have gone to bed.
In the silence of your mind
thoughts do spin. And therein lie

the dreams to which your heart aspires
sung for you by heavenly choirs.
Listen that your inner ear
may discern the guidance clear.

Each of us our life must live
using gifts that we’ve been given.
Grow our talents, skills, and wealth
and give the world our precious selves.

For buried treasures lose their luster.
Mounds of doubt and fear: they fester.
Later, when our skills improve:
then, we say, we’ll show the world.

Yet when another takes the stage,
our dreams cry out as jealous rage.
Spewing forth the rotten stench
of self-rejection turned to hate.

Now, ever the perfect time
to be ourselves and share our rhyme,
to gift the world in all we do.
I go forth. And now, will you?

By Jeanne Loehnis, 2005

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The Path

The world may not be ready
for all I have to share.
But Spirit is my teacher
and I must not despair.

Each creation I have nurtured
is waiting for its turn
to shine in God’s creation.
Someone needs to learn.

Another option waits
and I have found the key.
‘Tis mine to co-create
with the Master in the lead.

Strength is ever-present
for the next step I’m to take
provided I move forward
free of worry for my fate.

So, every day I travel,
blaze a path that’s all my own.
Spirit’s my companion
so I never walk alone.

By Jeanne Loehnis, 2005

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The Garden of God’s Love

A flower one, a fruit another, a tree so strong and tall.
God’s seeds have grown in many shapes and sizes one and all.
Yet how our lives are intertwined, your shade my comfort true.
My blossom colorful and sweet brings joy when you feel blue.

In this garden of God’s Love, sharp thorns will also grow.
Why among the beauty such great pain for some to know?
Forget you not the truth that’s buried in the thorns of life:
Gifts abundant shower all who know Christ through the strife.

Yes, in the garden there is One whose Love each soul does bless.
And as we recognize this gift, our neighbor we caress.
In pain and strife, in joy and peace, we know that we are one.
We grow in God’s rich garden side by side till life is done.

By Jeanne Loehnis, 2003