Category Archives: poetry

Love is the Only Cause and Effect

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Love is the only source;
the only cause; the only effect;
the only power; the only presence;
the only creator. Love is All.

We come from Love;
we are the effect of Love;
we manifest the power of Love;
we express the presence of Love;
we reflect the perfection of Love;
we are the image and likeness of our creator;
we are the ideas and children of Love.

Anything that would keep us
from being the reflection of perfect Love
is a lie
for we are Love being Love.

Love is omnipotent, omnipresent, glorious All.
And we are Her children.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell

An Ode to Boxing Day

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It’s a humble holiday, tucked in between
Christmas and New Year’s, but it’s really keen.
Things look a little bedraggled, it’s true.
The tree’s a little droopy and no longer new.

The movies and music of the Christmas season
are getting on our nerves now, and we’re seeing no reason
to eat even one more sugary oversweet sweet.
It’s time for broccoli and carrots (maybe hold on the beets).

The pressure for perfection comes off on this day,
the toys have been opened, and it’s come time to play.
And if before we were wearing faux holiday cheer
to blend in with the others and not Scroogey appear –

it’s time now to be genuine, and honest and real –
the food banks are empty, people still need a warm meal.
The homeless and hungry and jobless and alone
still need love and caring, still need a home.

So maybe we can celebrate the day after Christmas
by keeping the spirit of hope alive,
we might make that our business.
– Karen Molenaar Terrell, from The Madcap Christian Scientist’s Christmas Book

Christmas Has Landed in My heart!

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It’s 3:00 in the morning when I awake
to find it arrived while I slept!
Christmas has landed in my heart!
I slip out of the bedroom
and go downstairs and the cats
greet me in the hall.
I think they feel it, too.
I plug in the Christmas lights
above the mantel and settle
into my chair near the woodstove.
Black cat rubs his head against my hand.
Calico cat jumps up in the chair
next to mine and tucks her paws
underneath her and closes her eyes –
we are enjoying each other’s company.
The Christmas lights sparkle off
the smooth surfaces around me.
I sing “Silent Night” to the cats
and they turn to me and listen.
Magic is here! Incredible good beyond
imagining is here and more on its way!
Peace! Joy! Love! Hope!
It’s here! It’s here! It’s here!

-Karen Molenaar Terrell

Christmas Lights

Grateful for the Christmases That Have Been

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The sons are no longer toddlers
bopping and skipping around the home –
they’re grown now
and making traditions
and lives of their very own.

Mom and Dad have passed on –
they’ve moved on to their next chapter –
and I guess we’re moving on, too,
and finding the new adventures
that await us in our “after.”

Whatever the future holds –
I’m grateful for the Christmases that have been –
for the love and the memories
that will be with me forever –
for the love of my family and friends.

-Karen Molenaar Terrell

Christmas Wrapping

The Light Will Soon Return

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separated and alone
isolated in a cold, dark season
yearning for what was
and looking for a reason
to go forward

it will take courage
to move into the next chapter
to step forward and adapt to
whatever comes next
but trust that Love is there, too,
waiting for yours, waiting for you

the light will soon return

– Karen Molenaar Terrell

Lake Padden Forest (Photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell)

T’was Ten Day Afore Christmas

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T’was ten days afore Christmas and all o’er the Earth
human kinds were scrambling to find Christmassy mirth.
We looked under our beds and up to the North Pole,
looked in our attics and in our cookie dough bowls.

We looked to see if we could order the spirit online
or find it at the supermarket or in a Christmassy pine.
We looked in the fridge and under our car seats,
looked for it in old movies and in peppermint treats.

And then we stopped and settled our searching thoughts,
and it occurred to us that Christmas couldn’t be bought,
and that it wasn’t hiding from us here or there –
Christmas was in this moment, in our hearts, and everywhere!

And the Christmas joy spilled out of us, joining the joy of the Cosmos,
reaching out with love to the darkest, farthest outpost.
And hope filled our hearts, and love broke down the walls.
And we heard the Cosmos proclaim: “On earth peace, good will to all!”

-Karen Molenaar Terrell

December Morning

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frost on the ground and

fire dances in the wood stove

the calico sleeps

-Karen Molenaar Terrell

T’was Two Weeks Afore Christmas

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Podcast: https://anchor.fm/karen-molenaar-terrell/episodes/Twas-Two-Weeks-Afore-Christmas-e1bdl5l/a-a726m1a

T’was Two Weeks Afore Christmas

T’was two weeks afore Christmas and all through Eff Bee
not a creature was stirring – not a they, she, or he.
We were prostrate and spent from the holiday bustle
not a twitch could be seen from the teeniest muscle.

We lay all unblinking in our respective beds
while visions of gift-wrapping swirled through our heads.
And clad in our jammies and our way cool madcaps
we had the vague hopeful hope our bodies would take naps.

Holiday jangles and jingles pinged through our brains –
Presley, Crosby, and Mathis taking us down memory lanes –
and would we remember every member to be gifted?
We mentally went through our lists, hoping none were omitted.

There were homes to be decorated and cards to be sent;
parties, caroling, and cookie-making, and we hadn’t made a dent.
But with a collective sigh we remembered there and then
that it’s really about good will to all creatures, women, and men.

And so our thoughts finally settled and our bodies relaxed
as we thought of those we love and a world festooned in pax.
With our hearts wrapped in kindness and the world as our ‘hood
We’re all brethren and sistren – and verily, It’s all good!
– Karen Molenaar Terrell, from The Madcap Christian Scientist’s Christmas Book and A Poem Lives on My Windowsill

Christmas Peace
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Waiting for the Christmas Spirit

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The kitsch and spangles
and baubles and bangles,
And department store Santa,
just really can’ta
Seem to bring me
the spirit of Christmas.

And I’ve been waiting to feel it –
the real Christmas spirit
Hoping it’d come by now.
The stockings are stuffed,
the tree is all buffed,
The cookies are baked
and frosted and fluffed
But there’s still something missing –
a feeling, a tingling
that’s supposed to come every Christmas.

Except…
Maybe that Christmas feeling,
that energy and tingling
Is something I can have every day –
It doesn’t depend on spangles,
or jingly-bell jangles
Or jolly men dressed all in red.
It comes in the sharing
of laughter and caring
And the comfort in words with love said:
To all – Peace! Joy! Hope!
Every moment of every day.
– Karen Molenaar Terrell, from The Madcap Christian Scientist’s Christmas Book

Morning Prayer (December 3, 2022)

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You are my precious child.
You are loved. Don’t be afraid.
You are strong and confident,
healthy and happy and whole.
Right now you have everything
you need for life. You are fed
and sheltered and clothed
and warm – held safely
in the palm of My hand.
Karen Molenaar Terrell

Mama Robin and babies on our porch. (Karen Molenaar Terrell)