Category Archives: poetry

Be a Tree

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The son and I talked about the tree
on the drive home.
850 years it had lived on this planet!
It had been seeded in the late 1100’s –
around the time of Genghis Khan
and England’s King John,
before Mansua Musa or Marco Polo,
da Vinci or Michelangelo.
Before Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Shakespeare,
Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr. or Mooji.
It rooted into the soil as a tender seedling
and grew during the Black Plague; grew
while the ash from Krakatoa blocked the sun;
and while factories sprouted up across
the northern hemisphere. It grew while
soldiers fought to end slavery; while
World War I and World War II raged
across Europe; while our planet warmed;
and while division and despair
made humans sometimes wonder
if our planet was beyond repair.
It grew.
Quietly, without fanfare or medals
or approval or star ratings –
it lived, created oxygen, and grew –
because that is what trees do.
And maybe when it was older and sturdy,
indigenous children played in its bends
and called it “friend.”
I like to think that’s true.

Yesterday I visited my wise friend, Charles.
He could tell I was scared about our world.
“Just be present,” he said. “Be a tree.”
-Karen Molenaar Terrell

podcast link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/karen-molenaar-terrell/episodes/Be-a-Tree-e2fomug

(From *Looking Forward: More Adventures of the Madcap Christian Scientist*.)
https://www.amazon.com/Looking-Forward-Adventures-Christian-Scientist-ebook/dp/B0C3G5H57Q/

Wrestling with Fears

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“DOVE. A symbol of divine Science; purity and peace; hope and faith.”
-Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health

Wrestling with fears in a fierce battle of clutches and holds –
all twisted up in knots, throwing Bible verses and Eddy quotes
into the battle in a quick succession of stretches and locks
tangled up my own ruminations – I stop mid-thought.

And I surrender. Give up. Let go.

It’s right and natural to be fear-free, I know.
It shouldn’t feel like a battle to let fears go.
Hanging on to the fears takes a lot of energy
that I could better spend in happy reverie –
filling my thoughts with Truth, Life, and Love –
with the good things that come on the wings of a dove.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell

“Beloved Christian Scientists, keep your minds so filled with Truth and Love, that sin, disease, and death cannot enter them. It is plain that nothing can be added to the mind already full. There is no door through which evil can enter, and no space for evil to fill in a mind filled with goodness. Good thoughts are an impervious armor; clad therewith you are completely shielded from the attacks of error of every sort. And not only yourselves are safe, but all whom your thoughts rest upon are thereby benefited.”
-Mary Baker Eddy, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 210

“Fear never stopped being or its action.”
-Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health

“Fear thou not; for I am with thee…”
-Isaiah 41:10


Everything Good Is Nearer than Near

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even the cats are asleep
when I come downstairs
to see what I might reap
from the middle of the night

this is the hidden hour
safely tucked away in the dark
a time of quiet power,
alone in the tower
of my thoughts

but connected to the cosmos
with rainbow threads of Love
from star to star and coast to coast
extending beyond now and here
and beyond all fear

everything Good is nearer than near
-Karen Molenaar Terrell

Blue Cosmos (photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell)

A Dime for Four Minutes

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Here’s the podcast link.

I put a dime in the traffic meter
and bought myself four minutes.
And I thought what could I do
with my four minutes?
If I could pay a dime
for four minutes in past time –
what four minutes would I bring
back for myself?
Four minutes with Mom and Dad?
Four minutes with the sons?
Maybe everyone together
around the Thanksgiving table
for four minutes more?

I put a dime in the traffic meter
and bought myself four minutes.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell

Trying to Look Perfect

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How freeing it is
to be able to see
my own pettiness,
insecurities, vanity –
helping me forgive
others their egos
in uncovering my own,
helping me let go
of the burden
of trying to look perfect.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell

Here’s the link to the podcast.

Prayer is Listening

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Prayer is listening.
Love says, “You’re not a body;
you are embodied.”
-Karen Molenaar Terrell

(Photo of sunrise over Skagit County, Washington, by Karen Molenaar Terrell.)

May: Sunrise over Skagit County, WA

Haiku Prayers

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Here’s a link to the podcast.

A friend posted this idea in a Facebook group: “Today, write a prayer in the form of a haiku. A haiku is a Japanese poem that has three lines, each with a set number of syllables: 5-7-5. No need to rhyme, but notice how the structure helps focus your attention and conversation with God.” (A quick “google” tells me that this idea comes from a book called Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for an Imperfect Life by Kate Bowler and Jessica Ritchie.)

And what a great idea!

Here’s what I came up with…

Universe waking
We are part of Love’s body
embracing all Life
-Karen Molenaar Terrell

Feel the presence
of infinite Love filling
all space and time, yours
-Karen Molenaar Terrell

the world wakes to Love
all-encompassing power
hugging us with joy
-Karen Molenaar Terrell

What have you got? 😀

The First Word

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Here’s the link to the podcast.

Me, thinking.

Who spoke the first word
and who first heard?
Was it a word of warning?
Or a word of love?
Was it a grunt of fear,
or a coo like a dove?
Was the word-creator
the one who noised first
or the noise-imitator?
And how quickly
did that first word spread?
Did it crawl or leap
from head to head?
Over a million years passed
from the first word to Wordle
where you succed by jumping
over five-letter hurtles.

Me, thinking.

-Karen Molenaar Terrell

Eagles Dancing

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Eagles spinning and dancing

like eighth notes joined together

with wings across the sky

moving to the music

in my car

– Karen Molenaar Terrell

(Photo of bald eagles near Bow, Washington. By Karen Molenaar Terrell.)

Be Done

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Here’s the link to the podcast.

It is just what it is –
no worse than that –
it doesn’t portend –
it’s not the start or end –
it’s a stand alone
piece of life –
don’t make it a door
to something more –
deal with it now and here
and move on
without packing it along
with you

Be done.

-Karen Molenaar Terrell