Does it make sense to sacrifice
the very things we’re battling to win?
To give up our joy, and lose our love,
would be to let hate and fear win in the end.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
Joy Wins
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Category Archives: poetry
Cause and Consequence
The joy is always here, you know.
War and famine, pestilence and pain,
can’t stop joy from bubbling up,
unrestrained.
Love is always with us, too –
unhampered, irrepressible, strong –
heedless of whether you’re the “wronged”
or the “wrong.”
The thing about Love and joy
is they don’t depend on circumstance,
happenstance, or material substance.
They are both cause and consequence.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
With Old Friends, Laughing
Sitting in a bubble of joy
with old friends, laughing.
For a couple of hours
the world’s fear and terror
have no power.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
Holding Eye Contact
Have your eyes ever held onto someone else’s
during labor, an earthquake, storm, tumult?
And, while conflict and terror rage around you,
you feel safe held in that eye contact –
you feel the calm, the courage, the strength
coming through the space between you.
You know, whatever happens, you’re not alone.
I want to be that for you.
Look here. Look at me. You’re not alone.
I’m with you in the storm.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
***
Holding eye contact
with God – with Truth, Life, and Love –
focused on what’s true.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
Love, Open My Eyes to See
Love,
Open my eyes to see
there’s no separation
between You and me.
Help me see no one
in any nation
is beyond salvation.
Help me know there’s no wall
dividing the good of one
from the good of all.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
Is It Selfish to Feel Joy?
Is it selfish of me to feel joy
when there are people dying?
Or
is it selfish of me NOT to feel joy
when I’m able
and can share it with those
who need it?
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
Grateful to be alive.
Grateful for sunshine through my window.
Grateful for the fragrance of spring.
My Mother-Heart Breaks
My mother-heart breaks today.
Stop!
Stop sending our world’s children
into wars they don’t want.
Their lives are worth more than that.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
Joan Baez singing “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”
“Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth… the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places…”
-Isaiah 43
“The cement of a higher humanity will unite all interests in the one divinity.”
-Mary Baker Eddy
“Universal Love is the divine way in Christian Science.”
-Mary Baker Eddy
I Believe Again
I felt a spark of hope inside me
– a moment when I remembered
what it was like before the invasion
before the insurrection
before the division in our nation
and our world –
a distant memory of good will
and peace.
And remembering, I believe again.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
Ukraine: Field of Sunflowers and a Nightingale’s Song
a field of gold sunflowers
Ukraine’s national flower
tenacious, unbending,
showing the irrepressible power
of beauty and joy that grows
beyond boundaries
grows beyond war
the song of a nightingale
Ukraine’s national bird
uplifting, soaring, free-sailing
singing a song heard
beyond boundaries
over battles
above the clamor of war
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
A Ukrainian woman, a Russian tennis champion, a Russian hockey star, 13 Ukrainian soldiers on Snake Island, and the president of Ukraine have emerged as heroes in the last week. We see all of them confronting the world’s schoolyard bully – sometimes with sorrow, sometimes with anger, and always with unwavering courage. I pray for them, for the people of Ukraine, and for the Russian soldiers, too, who don’t want to be there – who were told by their commanders that they were going on “training exercises,” never wanted to be part of an invasion, and now just want to go home.
“Bloodshed, war, and oppression belong to the darker ages, and shall be relegated to oblivion.”
– Mary Baker Eddy
“Love for mankind is the elevator of the human race; it demonstrates Truth and reflects divine Love…” –
Mary Baker Eddy
Find the Joy Today
joyful, playful Life
blessings showered upon us
find the joy today
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
Adventures of the Madcap Christian Scientist 