When my friend's miracle arrived, I realized that it wasn't hope that had been keeping us going all those years.  In fact it was the exact opposite.  It was knowing when to take a rest from hope.

Dear new guy in aerobics class,

I see you way at the back, cheeks red with humiliation, occasionally wincing into the mirror when you catch sight of yourself. Trying desperately to follow the perfectly synchronized flailing of limbs that is the rest of the class.

The hardest part about preaching, for me, is learning to speak slowly.  I have been told it is a bad idea to cram everything I have to say into one sermon because for heaven's sake what if I succeed?

Since I prefer to speak so quickly you can't absorb a word I say, this is not generally a problem.

Without darkness, nothing comes to birth. -May Sarton

I would add:  Without enough blood to pass for a murder scene, nothing comes to birth.  

They’ve got God, and I’ve got no-God.

Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying they have a thing and I don’t. I’m saying they have a thing and I have a different thing.

No-God is a thing in and of itself. No-God is endlessly practical. She wears comfortable shoes, and fanny pack stocked with all kinds of things that are real and useful.

you are not on call

for the pain of the world

I know you feel every hit of the hammer, beating

plowshares into swords,

and people into plowshares

and every time you fail to step between

the blow and its target

the injustice is sewn into your bones, too