Rev. Vanessa Titang

Tag: love

  • Fair

    Fair

    *A poem/reflection written in prayer on the challenge someone I know currently faces battling cancer.

    There is nothing fair
    About any of this,
    Of children
    That of which we are
    Left to fend for themselves,
    There is nothing fair about there being
    An unknown
    That is always shrouded in mystery;
    Without answers
    I can try to comfort you
    And try I will,
    I ask that you only take from it what you need,
    Here is what I believe:
    There is nothing “fair”
    About the suffering you endure
    And it is not an act of spite,
    By the Divine;
    The Divine
    —A spirit so grand and yet still seeing your lifetime in its uniqueness
    For the first time;
    Spirit, an entity timeless
    And endless
    Thus, always in flux;
    Knows even metamorphoses involve mutation,
    At levels, we can not perceive;
    The cosmos are so great and complex, and yet their workings are also part of and shaped by the microscopic;
    Spirit may stir the workings,
    Yet pain is but
    A byproduct,
    unintended,
    This we may never rightly understand;
    Breathe, dear one,
    It is not fair,
    Nor is it your fault,
    In this moment, I can do nothing to absolve your hurting,
    But I can be present
    With you,
    for you,
    Holding you in this temporal comfort of embrace,
    I can also say nothing,
    For words are meaningless,
    Being explained to one in a crucible;
    As much as I can
    I hold your pain
    In my heart
    In exchange with my love,
    Love that is also an unending
    Blessed gift of the Divine,
    always,
    And for all;

    And still damnit No,
    This
    is not fair.

  • White Water: Life

    White Water: Life

    The current is hard, love,
    The tide is high,
    The waves are choppy,
    But don’t lose yourself in the white water,
    And if you should
    Remember to go back,
    Go back;
    And rescue you,
    You too deserve
    To be believed,
    Loved,
    Appreciated,
    and Saved,
    This river of life is rough.

  • Infinitely Creating

    Spirit is love
    Spirit is All,
    All is Love.

    Everything happens for reasons
    All of which
    We cannot see
    cannot understand,
    cannot comprehend,
    Within the event.

    This
    is infinite creation,
    Everything is in flux;
    Spirit is never “done”.

    Spirit is change;
    Spirit is creativity;
    Spirit is balancing infinite infinities,

    But first Spirit is Love
    And thus creates;
    Creates, grows, and balances creation,
    Infinitely.

  • SPIRIT is LOVE: Visiting My Process Theology

    SPIRIT is LOVE: Visiting My Process Theology

    February 6th, 2023

    My theology is of

    Panentheism
    ” (“all in God”, from the Greek πᾶν, pân, ‘all’, ἐν, en, ‘in’ and Θεός, Theós, ‘God’)[1] is the belief that the divine intersects every part of the universe and also extends beyond space and time. ” (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panentheism)

    *SPIRIT/God[ess]/Olorun/Allah/YHWH… (different names/ “languages”, but all the same ultimate source in reference, perceived from different angles of the same divine prism).
    –Here I will refer to as “SPIRIT”

    SPIRIT…
    *… is love
    *…is a force/energy and entity
    *…is creativity/creation
    *…is change
    *…is in all, and all the universe is inside, and yet there is still more SPIRIT outside of this, in infinite capacity
    *… loves ALL creation
    *…is omnibenevolent
    *… is omnipresent (in all and around all), but NOT omnipotent in the way most assume:
    As a good parent, SPIRIT cares for but also gives free will and room for their children to be independent and find the residual and unending presence of SPIRIT within themselves. This is imperfect in action on the part of the child, but that is perfect and was meant to be. All that comes to pass is a learning moment, not for when SPIRIT is gone, but for when WE lose our way to SPIRIT. That separation is where what we know as “evil” may take seed, and unlearned from and unrecognized can take over. That too is a lesson, once we can WAKE to it and seek again the TRUTH of an unconditional, selfless, universal LOVE.)

    *SPIRIT LOVES.

    *THE MEANING, PURPOSE, AND FUEL OF EXISTENCE IS LOVE.

    1 John 4:16
    “So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.

    God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.”

  • P A T R I O T +

    P A T R I O T +

    If I
    Had been fit, at the time
    After 9/ 11,
    would I have lived up
    to my own values fully?
    Or needed to force-fit my vessel into an 8-bit camo suit,
    That compromised MY personal soul mission;
    To be what everyone else at the time saw to be the only version of
    A “real” “Patriot”?
    Likely.

    Instead
    Chubby, brainy, MS “rewiring” me
    Found MY real patriotism+ ;
    Finding Real in the
    Meaning behind red, white, & blue;
    And the spectral black-white that lay just
    Below the service .
    And I found my personal freedom
    In, of, for and through me.
    –As a sister, a daughter,
    a friend, a lover,
    a mother,
    A “No one’s free until everybody’s free”,
    Social justice advocating
    Flower child,
    Love worshipping
    Mystic,
    And Spiritual freedom fighting
    Harriet, Fannie Lou, Ida B., and MLK Jr. emulating
    Patriot+.

    1.7.2023 (revised 1.14.2023)

  • Time for All Ages reading: And Tango Makes Three

    A recording of And Tango Makes Three that I narrated, for a Time for All Ages at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Ellsworth.

  • Mirror Ritual

    Mirror Ritual

    Fragile, human soul,
    Prepare the glass altar
    For your love,
    With love,
    Impeccably,
    Arrange the ornate items
    For this ritual,
    Delicately,
    Here,
    In this sacred space you occupy
    In flesh,
    Conjure your essence forth,
    To be present here to see,
    To gaze upon,
    To experience,
    To honor,
    Beauty and divinity in its true form,
    Staring back at you in the mirror.

  • A Chill

    A Chill

    I am beginning a book group tomorrow at the church I am serving as an intern; Via zoom of course. I have never led a book group before, nor been a part of a book group. I am not quite sure what is expected of the group leader.
    The book we are reading is Wintering, by Katherine May. It is about difficult life experiences and going through this time of winter. Jessica, the person I am leading the group with, and I felt it was ideal considering what we are all going through with the pandemic. We are at the vaccination stage (for some), but we’re all still holed in, isolating, waiting for the all clear. It is a mass time of wintering. And we have been doing this for about a year now. What can I say to lead a group, at this time that has not been said before?

    And then the collision happened. Today. My partner was in an automobile accident on the way to work. A severe accident. I am now sitting with a cup of coffee at Eastern Maine Medical Center waiting for the completion of his surgery.
    This is our winter. We have been going through it for some time. Through sudden death, cancer, surgery, and now trauma. And I realize something about what I’ve been doing wrong in my ministry—despite ministry, life still happens, to me. I am not immune from the vertigo of life. I’m in it, like everyone else. So while I can offer prophetic reflections as I go, I ought not expect to deflect difficulty.
    Perhaps I am understanding the point of the Wintering book better now– embrace the winter, live through the winter, wear your warmest threads, just expect to get quite a chill.