Spring has sprung -- just as the pre-General Convention anxiety level seems to have sprung a leak into my email inbox which is filling up with questions and concerns, predictions and speculations, rumors and rumblings about what will happen next to our life together in this Big Fat Episcopal Family. Happily, however, there weren't ONLY anxious emails in my inbox this morning -- I also got this nice e-card from a friend with these happy crocus springily blooming their optimistic perky selves. They reminded me of this poem from my seminary days -- and made me wonder if we shouldn't be stocking up on some crocus for Columbus!
CROCUS
It takes courage
to be crocusminded.
Lord, I'd rather wait til June
like wise roses
when the hazards of winter are
safely behind
and I'm expected
and everything's ready for roses.
But crocuses?
Highly irregular
Knifing up
through hard frozen ground and snow;
sticking their necks out,
because they believe in spring
and have something personal
and emphatic to say about it.
Lord, I am by nature roseminded.
Even when I have
studied the situation here
and know there are wrongs that need righting
affirmations that need stating
and know that my speaking out
might even rock the boat,
Well, I'd rather wait til June.
Maybe things will work themselves out
and we won't have to make an issue of it.
Lord, forgive.
Wrongs don't work themselves out
Injustices and inequities and hurts
don't just dissolve.
Somebody has to stick her neck out,
somebody who cares enough to think through
and work through hard ground
because she believes
and has something personal to say about it.
Me, Lord?
Crocusminded?
Could it be that there are things that need
to be said, and you want me to say them?
I pray for courage. Amen.
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