BECOMING MORE by Jenneth Graser

This poem is a heart cry for authenticity...

It is the urgency I came to, after experiencing some very painful issues this past year which led me to a place of feeling, no more.  I want to be myself and to fully be myself means that I will sometimes be met with love, and sometimes with disappointment.  It is the people-pleasing side of my nature that needs to be sacrificed on the altar of God’s unconditional love. Only God will give me the validation I need as a child of royalty and honor.  

When we know our worth, we can be free to love and be loved in return. This poem is about coming into the realization of personal power; power that is shaped by love and creativity, that uplifts others and does brave things like forgiveness. I believe that only as we face our own inner pain with healing, will we not be driven to repeat the same patterns over and over again.  I am determined by the grace of God to both live into humility, and to become more.

Becoming More

by Jenneth Graser 

She has made her soul to be
as smooth as possible,
laid down before the feet
of passers-by as a road for travel.

She has attempted the intricate
architecture of bridging across landmass
for others.

She has contemplated the doormats
that ordain front shops and village homes -
some welcome all guests,
others used for wiping off the dirt alone.

As long as she is beneath and
not above, all eyes greet her
with warmth and happiness.

As long as she is quiet
when quiet is expected.
As long as she is vocal
only by definition, all is well.

But to become aware,
to wave her soul as a banner,
to extricate from the web
of articulate conversation,
to express deeper thoughts
that arise from within like prisms,
to attempt to walk
on top of the water when others
prefer taking the ferry,
to shake off the doormat dust
and walk through the threshold of the door
into what may come -

This is met with a variety of
possible reactions, not all welcome.

And yet to feel her soul
become a skin of tattooed brilliance,
to feel her soul a jewel refracting light,
to feel her soul becoming;
becoming more
is worth sacrificing people's opinions
over the cliff of intention,
is worth shedding old ways
that no longer service,
is worth the pain
of discovery. 

She has become for herself
a flying carpet.

She may pour out abundance
upon the faces of all people.
She may touch the temple
of every human being with full grace
and travel every road with her soul a flag flying
from her hand stretched out of the window,
exuberant.

Jenneth Graser a South African born poet, librarian and homeschool Mom, has lived in Cape Town for most of her life, but also lived in Canada when her family immigrated there in the early 80's. She is married to Karl and they have three daughters. Jenneth has a degree in Library and Information Studies and left her career as a teacher librarian to raise and homeschool their children. Karl and Jenneth facilitate a contemplative group, Free Flow. She is part of a community of writers for the Godspace blog and enjoys creating visual prayer quotes on the FB page Mystic Prayers.  She blogs at Prayers on the Wing and is the author of a devotional, Catching the Light. In January 2017, she released a volume of 100 spiritual poems called The Sound of Amen for every pilgrim going deeper into adventures of the heart and soul.  It is available presently for download at Noisetrade, here. You are invited to catch up with Jenneth at her website Secret Place Devotion. 

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