Thank You God For the Food

Kids are coming home for the long weekend.  At least some are.  Others have gone to special things far away and Leo is down south – visiting his brother, waiting to pick Grace up again and bring her home.

Here, we will head over to my dad and stepmom’s for Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday.  So I guess I will be going home to my parents too!

Kids come home carrying big loads sometimes.  Not just the dirty laundry either!  That I could deal with.  The emotional loads are a lot harder to deal with.  And I can’t just lug them off to the washer and get them all cleaned up.  Sometimes it is hard to even get them to open up their hampers of problems to help them sort it out.  Sometimes I don’t want them opening up their stinky hampers!  I just want a nice weekend.

Kids live complicated lives.  I wish I could help them to see things through brighter lenses.  But then I realize, I am probably not even looking at the same picture.  We are different generations and I will never understand some of what they see because it is unrecognizable from my angle.  Sometimes my angle is experience but sometimes it is just that I belong to an older culture and the world now is spinning more out of control.  It gives me a feeling of helplessness because I would like to fix things for them and I can’t.

God,

I wish I could do some of your work for you.

I see so many hurting people around

And you didn’t gift me with the powers

Of speech.  So

I stay silent.

But I see,

And I feel.

I hear them crying out

But am helpless

To help.

 

God,

Why does life have to dish out

Such inequitable portions?

The young and inexperienced ones

Get loaded down with

Depression,

Anxiety,

Stress.

Having their hopes,

Their dreams,

Crushed.

 

God,

I don’t like it but feel too old

To give advice, because I know

That I can’t fix it either.

You working out

Your plans

For them.

But God,

Give them

A vision, a sign

Of you.

 

And God,

Give me a vision again too.

I don’t like this starved feeling,

I need to feed with you too.

And I need

Extra

To share

With the kids

You’ve

Seated

Around my table.

 

Thank you God for the food.