Autobiography of Eve

In Bible study a couple of weeks ago, Sarah gave us this poem.

 

Autobiography of Eve

 by Ansel Elkins

 Wearing nothing but snakeskin boots,

I blazed a footpath,

the first radical road out of that old kingdom

toward a new unknown.

When I came to those great flaming gates of burning gold,

I stood alone in terror at the threshold

between Paradise and Earth.

There I heard a mysterious echo:

My own voice singing to me from across the forbidden side.

I shook awake –

At once alive in a blaze of green fire.

 

Let it be known:

I did not fall from grace.

 

I leapt to freedom.

I was taking a poetry class, and I couldn’t get it out of my mind, so I wrote a continuation.

Autobiography of Eve (cont.)

 By Abbie Watters

Down green leafy hills, across hot sandy stretches I ran,

alive in my new-found freedom,

alone and not alone,

hand-in-hand with Adam.

 

We explored and learned

and fought and cried

and loved and laughed and sighed.

 

My children were precious gifts.

Bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh.

They fought for more things and more power,

with lust and pride.

With each of my babies’ battles,

my heart shattered like a mirror

each piece reflecting a horror in my own soul.

 

Down the unnumbered years of time I fled,

in my tattered, snakeskin boots,

watching as children were born

and fought and loved and died.

 

Across the uncharted spaces,

hand-in-hand with Adam,

I reached a garden with an empty tomb.

 

I saw again the flaming gates of gold –

The threshold between Paradise and Earth.

 

I leapt back into the grace of God.

 

 

Hummingbird Feeder

I just gave myself a present of a hummingbird feeder to add to my collection of bird feeders. I have a seed feeder that the chickadees and sparrows and finches love.

I also have a suet feeder that serves nutritious lunches to the woodpeckers, flickers, and nuthatches.

The hummingbirds have had to be content with the saliva in the front yard just outside our breakfast room window (we have one who loves to eat lunch with us most days.) But I haven’t had a hummingbird feeder outside my window where I can watch as I work on my computer until now. I haven’t been able to catch a picture of one yet, so I’ll leave you with this wonderful little video from PBS. Be sure to watch for the tongue. I was unaware that hummingbirds had tongues as long as their beaks. And that they lick their lips, sometimes!

May – 2018

Persevere is my Word for this Year.

Looking at where I am in my life, I really don’t want to take on anything new, but I do need to deepen my knowledge and commitment to the things I am doing.

• Politically – I’m going to persist in the resistance.
  • People Power – I continue to serve on the Texting Team for People Power. That means most days I send between 200 and 600 texts to people who have signed up with the ACLU People Power. Some of the texts are invitations to training for organizing. Some are invitations to organizational meetings, and some are invitations to write, phone, or email political representatives. They are all sent individually and answered individually (thank goodness, I have canned answers available – but we individualize everything as much as possible.) Remember, the ACLU is political but non-partisan. I am one of the texting leads on this team. There are four of us who try to take some of the burden off of the folks to do the real work of getting everything set up. We also TRY to deal creatively and nicely with other volunteers who may not be very understanding or kind.
  • Wall of Us – I continue to try to accomplish the four actions requested by Wall of Us every week. For instance, this week we are asked to try to understand Ramadan, support the Muslim Blue Wave, commit to vote and ask others to commit, and build local power with “ActLocal”.
  • I haven’t been able to attend a Poor People’s Campaign action yet, but I’m still trying to clear my calendar for a day.
  • I’m also collecting signatures for a ballot initiative in Washington State, to tax carbon polluters and use the extra money to build more wind and solar power farms. It’s Initiative 1631, and I encourage all the voters in Washington who read this blog to sign the petition.

• Religiously – I’m going to really work at being Moderator of Olympia Presbytery.
  • May’s Leadership Council meeting was pressed for time, and a little fractured, but the May Presbytery Meeting was great. The theme was “Blessed are the Hungry” and everything worked out wonderfully.
    • Our preacher for worship was Carmen Pimms, the Executive Director of Campbell Farms. People are still talking about her message.
  • 
    
    • We also had workshops by churches who have community gardens, churches who started a feeding program that grew into something much more, and a nature study by the Ecology Education director at Camp Soundview.
  • 
    Also at the Presbytery Meeting, we were able to move our Kenyan Congregation, Umoja Presbyterian Church, from New Worshipping Community status, but the status of a congregation of Olympia Presbytery.
  • Interfaith community – I continue to meet with the Interfaith Ladies once a month.
  • At the last minute, I found out about an opportunity to apply to be on the Nominating Committee for the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA). Amazingly enough, I was accepted, and my nomination to the committee will be voted on June 22nd. I covet your prayers.
• Creatively – I’m going to try to get down to working on my family history/memoir.
  • Fill in gaps on Ancestry.com – Still working on my genealogy (I don’t think it’s ever finished).
  • I’ve started a poetry writing course here at Franke Tobey Jones. Hopefully, I’ll be posting some of my poems here at this blog soon.
  • Keep up with my knitting – I’m turning out a couple of pairs of socks a week. So far this year I’ve turned out 32 pairs of socks and have yarn for 16 more.
• Personally – I’m going to keep up walking, and try to add some resistance training.10,000 steps a day –
  • I’m keeping up with this, but not being obsessive about it.
  • 2-3 sessions of weight training a week – I finally made an appointment for a personal trainer here and I now have appointments to do strength and weight training as well as my Fitbit steps.
• Socially – I’m going to tend my current relationships.
  • Gazebo Group – The Gazebo Group continues to thrive (particularly with the younger (less than 80 years old) members of the community).
  • Maintain congregational ties – I attend weekly Bible study and try to attend whatever extra worship services there may be. In May I served as Worship Leader on Sunday mornings.

I would really appreciate it if you, gentle readers, would remind me of these intentions when you see me fluttering off after the latest cause du jour.