L'Arche Prayer (added and adapted)

Father…
Mother, Lord, Lordisa, God, Holiness, Divine, Creator, All…
We ask you to bless our houses…
… the Activity Center, 161, 261, 201, 1360, and all of the L’Arche homes around
the world... May all community members feel welcomed into a home found in the relationships of love, gentleness, forgiveness, and understanding. May we remember that we belong to each other.
Keep them safe in your heart….
…wrapped in your joyous Love, holding us as the Beloved. May we remember the blessings allowed to each one of us within the community large and small. May we remember the joy and life given within a community which is open to giving and receiving each individual with all the gifts and brokenness one has to offer. May we keep each person close to heart.
Make L’Arche a true home…
….a true family, a true comfort, a true security, a true refuge. May we remember to create our homes and our family through the blessedness found in sharing traditions of simple prayer, nourishing meals, and fun celebrations always with the intention of Love.
A refuge for the poor in spirit…
… those lost without hope; those wandering without direction; those convinced of despair; those scared of recognizing the beauty within themselves…. 
That they may find here the source of all life…
... where being loved can be as simple as breathing and where the light always shines through cracks in each of us.
A refuge for those who are severely tried…
... for the tired, the weary, the displaced, and the marginalized….
That they may be ceaselessly consoled…
... with newfound hope over and over again. May we be a constant sign that Hope is possible and real in each and every day, simply because we believe that each of the abilities and disabilities inherent in each of one of us are Necessary for the beauty of Life.

Father…
Mother, Lord, Lordisa, God, Holiness, Divine, Creator, All…
Give us hearts that are humble and gentle…
... both to the strangers we just meet and to ourselves that we know all too well. May we remember to remain open to listening, learning, receiving, and growing through the gifts of others...
To welcome with kindness and compassion…
… as we too hope to be welcomed. May we not forget the deepest desire of our hearts is the need to Belong. May we remember our belonging rests in the necessity of loving and respecting the stranger as well as loving and respecting our own self. May we remember that gentleness, compassion, and forgiveness are the sunshine and water necessary for growth, as well as the fruits born from mutual relationships…
All those whom you send us…
…the sick, the well, the old, the young, the ragged, the rich, the humble, and the boisterous; all are called to share a meal together at the Divine table. May each of us remember where we come from, but strive to meet others where they stand. May each of us share the beauties of our life, our culture, and our independence, while welcoming new beauty, new life, and new understanding of togetherness.

Give us hearts full of mercy…
… as to be slow to judge, slow to condemn, and slow to shutout, anyone who has wronged us. May we give mercy freely to others as it has been divinely given to us, knowing and understanding that each of us could use a little more compassion in our everyday lives.
To love them…
… undoubtedly, irrevocably, and unquestionably as the Beloved. May this Love be mutually shared in a relationship born to slowly transform each person into a constant vessel of the Divine.
To serve them….
… in love, in laughter, and in friendship. May our service to others help us discover the source of our own poverty. May we empty ourselves in loving and intentional service to others, as to be open and ready to receive the gifts and service each person returns to us…
To extinguish discord…
…by seeking understanding and reconciliation in each moment of choice. May our community be given renewal with each new occasion sought to mend brokenness, heal hurts, and listen to heartaches. May we put out the fires of indifference, apathy, judgments, and criticism and re-ignite our hearts with the flames of true care, concern, and respect for every individual in the community.
And to see in our suffering brothers and sisters the living presence of Jesus…
... where simplicity, prayer, and fun turn into spontaneous moments of outrageous Joy for a life shared with other people. May we remember these are the moments capable of lifting Life from suffering to illumination.

Bless us from the hands of your poor…
… from those rejected, dejected, isolated, and marginalized. May we listen to their stories and receive the truth offered in their hands. May this truth keep us living in the reality of our world and to respond always with Love.
Smile on us from the eyes of your poor…
… from eyes of longing, eyes of seeking, and eyes full of hope for more. Baptize us with tears of poverty, of loss, of loneliness, and of fear. May the eyes of the poor search our souls and allow us to see ourselves more clearly as the Beloved.
Lord, one day receive us in the holy company of your poor…
…with the murderers, the rapists, the abusers, the users, the gluttons, the consumers, the ignorant, and the self-absorbed. May we realize our own poverty and recognize our own feelings of loneliness, fear, and rejection. May we also recognize our own undeniable gifts uniquely named and freely given to each one of us. May we use our gifts to the greatest of our abilities. May we not be scared to shine brightly and soar freely. May we transform our feelings of war into energies of peace and Life. May we build community within our hearts, within our homes, within our neighborhoods, and within our world. May we always recognize the necessity of each living and breathing creature. May we always remember that we belong to each other. And may we receive you as freely as you receive us.
Amen.

Kiss the ground with laughter

The soul easily shines through any rainy day with laughter... and laughter is never very far from us when in the presence of children.  Keep them close and strive to be like them... laughing, twirling, simple and free. 

"Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper your sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain."
kahlil gibran - the prophet.

Sexier Than Mosquitos

What could be funkier than a mosquito’s tweeter? Just simply check out the lunatics gathered in downtown Mobile this past weekend. Fifty of the funkiest, sole-shaking, pump-strutting, vintage-clad models to work the catwalk were showcasing the latest old-fashions as an event of Mobile’s Arts Alive weekend.
Courtney (CoCo) Matthews, owner of Lunatix, the awesomely unique boutique located in downtown Mobile, coordinated the affair with complete due diligence of fun, funk, and fabulous fashion for participants and viewers. Models showcased clothing and accessories from local artists who have sewn, glued, painted, and printed glamour and art into the dusty styles from the past, making each piece new and fashion-forward for today’s hip locals. Hair and makeup was made loud, proud, and poofed by amazing talents of local artists. If the themes of eighties style, mosquito’s beauty, and uncaged birds strutting the catwalk were not unique enough, the show was even stapled together with intermissions of fire blowing, bicycle entertainers, and the hypnotizing hips of a local hoop dancer. Eyes stayed glued to the entertainment, while toes were tapping along to the eclectic play list of Prince, Queen, Spoon, Nina Simone, and other heart-rocking beats.
One of the most exciting experiences of the show was participating in an event able to re-invent a city’s definition of “sexy” for at least a day. While the word has the ability to call to mind scantily clad women and shirtless six-packed men in a typical American(unfortunately might seem synonymous for Abercrombie) setting, Matthews’ gathering of local lunatics took the word to another, and needless to say, better level. Sexiness radiated from the catwalk’s array of talents, races, gender, and ages. As young as two-years old, youth designs included crafty crochet accessories and sock monkeys to the fantastical designs of unicorns and tutus. Local tweens, both boys and girls, showed out on the runway with neon and lights as part of the eighties collection. Men rocked fur vests and fedoras with their walking canes, while women rocked leopard jumpsuits and made mosquitoes and moths desirable and attractive for the first time ever. Paradoxically to our culture, mothers were showcased throughout each of the artsy themes as naturally sexy, intelligent, and fun, greatly attributed to the impeccable adroitness of the mother-in-charge herself, CoCo Matthews.Who else could have a bird perched in a nest of purple hair ontop a woman’s head as she twirls in a red and white full length, full skirted, corset-tied birdcage dress as the sexy finale? …None other than the beauty-full Lunatix.

I dare you to find a match to the sexiness of Mobile’s annual fashion event in any episode of Project Runway or any page of Cosmopolitan magazine. Thank you local lunatics for creating a lovely getaway from the mainstream khakis and collars to the catwalk theme of winged-things and unicorns. Thank you for identifying our sexiness in terms of vintage clothes, screen-printing artists, mothers and kids, winged eye makeup and bird nest hair. Thank you for making beauty-full lunatix of us all!

WE are Necessary.

(re-posted from Awakening the Everyday blog)

Even in my weakest moments, I am seen as important and worthy.  Even in the hair-pulling curse-worthy moments, I am looked at with loving and supportive eyes.  Even in the pity-party, PMS moments of my day, I am given a hand to hold or a kiss on the cheek.  I have been living life on the margins within the L’Arche community for just more than five years now, and I am still in the process of realizing all the aforementioned statements are Truth. While I do live and work in the land of the red, white, and blue where we pride ourselves on individuality and freedom, I am still among the majority of our global society shackled to the nagging questions of our humanity: What can I offer? Am I good enough?  Will they still love me?

My life holds with it a personal collection of struggles and challenges, beauties and gifts, just like everyone else, each relative to their own experience of Life.  Many times I find myself alone, questioning the presence of god not only in my own daily happenings but also searching for a god of any significance within the bigger picture.  As my cynicism often gets the best of me, I am left alone with my questions and doubts.  Of course, if I manage to look beyond the tip of my own nose, I am able to quickly realize any meditation on these doubts is silly and dead-end from the beginning.  To be alive – spiritually and emotionally in this physical life – is to live in full faith that You and I are necessary.  I can question the power of God, the rhymes and reasons of Life, the significance of praying to a Higher Power, but to doubt the person next to me is the first step in losing my Spirituality. 

L’Arche is an imperfect community made up of imperfect individuals striving for something extraordinary.  It is a community of people living on the margins of society, working from the ground up, living as signs of hope for a beautiful and dignified world. My work upholds my Spirituality in knowing we are worthy of lives full of Love, and that together we discover Redemption in our imperfectness.  While the heart of our community lies in the individuals with intellectual disabilities, each of us comes to L’Arche in search of our refuge, our salvation.  While Diane struggles physically with the constraints of a wheelchair, hands tight and constricted from Cerebral Palsy, and a voice that is hardly intelligible to most people, she depends on me and others to keep her included in every choice of her life from going to the bathroom to mopping the kitchen floor.  While I may have the intellectual and physical capability to choose my daily choices, I struggle with an overbearing ego and an idea of individualism that keeps me guarded and distant from those around me. I depend on Diane and others to keep me grounded and involved in the importance and significance of the daily routine of life.  Together, Diane and I are redeemed in the here and now of Life by recognizing we belong to each other. We are held together in forgiveness, compassion, and acceptance. L’Arche communities are able to meld the strengths and weaknesses of individuals in ways that are rare within our global mindset of achievement and progress.  While I continue my journey in community, I am now blessed to watch my daughter grow in this unique environment with the hope that some day she will dance on the margins of our world with a known sense of freedom in Love with others.

If we keep our faith in each other and remember the necessity of even the weakest among us (which we may often identify as our self), we are capable of achieving an extraordinary life of love and beauty.  I am important and worthy.  I am supported and loved.  I am necessary. WE are Necessary.