I always sought to forgive them,
asking God's grace to favor them,
saying they know not what they do.
Now it's different. I know how it
feels to discover that they do.
It works like this—the tiny threads
you treasured, memories you held
on to are snatched up and there is
nothing but an empty silence.
You go over every moment,
Every conversation because
it seems inconceivable that
they could have happened and occurred
simultaneously to such
deliberate intent to harm.
Sure some things make a lot more sense,
like why they did not invite you
or little seeds of doubt they threw
around like confetti. But all
in all that too evaporates—
Your entire life just gone and
rendered as if by single stroke
by these you have so loved as null
and void. And you think of your child
and the innocent child inside.
And somehow then you make your way,
find the strength to greet the day.
You give your broken heart to God
and ask that he might mend it
once again, teach you to forgive.
The songs and art in this book are about our collective emergence after the pandemic and trauma of the last few years - comprised of 5 collections: World as Refuge, Where We Live, In Our Hands, Rhythms of Change and What We See & Sow.