Caution Tape

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Overwhelming compassion falling like the turned autumn leaves

Into the open hands of children with wide eyes and narrow futures

The click of heels down city sidewalks serving as a constant reminder of the separation

between the people who walk on the cold concrete and the people who sleep on it

Those whose purchases are kept in shopping bags and those whose lives are kept in the very same

Haunted souls and haunted eyes

Coffee cups filled with lattes and coffee cups filled with change

Why do we choose to be content with anthills when we could be building up mountains?

 

"God bless you!" cried out to turned backs and turned minds

I've heard that the chill of winter in the city is nothing compared to the cold hearts that inhabit it

When did it become normal to deem people unworthy of connection

Downcast eyes and parents holding their children's hands tighter than before

You can't keep them comfortable forever

Because there is nothing comfortable about feeling guilty and sheltered

Walking an easy path lit by street lights and love

While your brothers and sisters have stumbled in the dark

 

It's easy to believe in a God who blesses you

A God whose hand you can visibly see working in people and through people

Whose voice you can hear in conversations of kindness

But I cannot imagine that it is easy to find Him in judging eyes and the backs of heads

How do you build your life on the Rock

When you feel like rocks are being thrown at you daily?

I don't think I'll ever understand the type of faith that grows in deserts

Are there seeds of truth in barren soil?

Are there branches of life in burned down forests?

 

And still I believe that the goodness of the world outshines fear

Our problem is that we use the light of goodness to create shadows

We point to the darkness more often than we dwell in it

Sometimes it's easier to give than it is to share

We set up caution tape around our comfort zone and barriers around our point of view

The problem isn't that we refuse to cross or climb them

The problem is that we set them up in the first place

Humanity has created a "them" and an "us" instead of a "we"

Like reaching toward fire and getting burned

It may take dozens of blisters before we stop blaming the flame and start blaming ourselves

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