Prison

Prison:
noun. ˈpri-z^ən
1. a state of confinement or captivity
2.  a place of confinement especially for lawbreakers;specifically : an institution (as one under state jurisdiction) for confinement of persons convicted of serious crimes — compare jail
Comes from:
Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin prehension-, prehensio act of seizing, from prehendere to seize 


Or at least that is what Mirriam-Webster has to say about it.
Prison


Each of us is trapped in our own prison
As my friend Harry would say.


A state of confinement or captivity we are each trapped in
alone.
(or so we too often choose to believe)


We struggle to get out,
but in our way stands the immovable bars.
Yet we continue our futile attempts
banging on the bars,
clawing at the bars,
attempting to dig holes into the cold, stone ground to go under the bars,
chiseling away at the metal walls to get around the bars,
strategically trying to compromise the structure of the bars,
but it is to no avail.
We end up just staring at the bars.


We continue to stare at those bars, 
refusing to shift the focus of our tired eyes to 
the One standing next to us who holds the key.


I know that One that holds the key
but too too often I choose to believe
that He cannot completely
set
me
free.


Completely, meaning I will never go back?
This scares me.
Those bars are familiar.
They have become my home.
Too often I choose fear over freedom
It seizes me


So I go on banging my head against those same cold bars
that will continue to barricade me in
until I am able to lift my stubborn head
and look into the eyes of the One who wants to release me
and
set
me 
free.


Completely.


Can I trust You?
I don't know my way out here.
What about the others I left behind?
Can we go and set them free, like me?


Completely.

Wisdom

"God, grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, and the Wisdom to know the difference."

A Franciscan Blessing

This year for lent I am striving to be uncomfortable.  To alter my life so that I may begin to experience pain similar to those suffering from oppression.  God must be faithful and must be the source of my strength.
As I walk around for the next 40 days, my prayer is that I will continually be aware of God sustaining me.
That my pain will be a reminder of God's goodness.
That I will rejoice in the comfort that has been crushed.
That I will be able to say "Jesus, You are more than enough."
and truly mean it.

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they?  Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
And why do you worry about clothes?  See how the flowers of the field grow.  They do not labor or spin.  Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like on of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you - you of little faith?  So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own."
-Jesus

Silence

"Yih'yu l'ratzon imrei fi V'hegyon libi l'fanecha, adonai tzuri

Yih'yu l'ratzon imrei fi V'hegyon libi l'fanecha, adonai tzuri

[translation: "Let it be your will that my words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart come before you, God my rock my redeemer"]

I will crush my fantasy, 

bring me olive oil crushed for his majesty 

to shine a warmth into eternity, this is an eternal decree, 

We'll dance like flames for there's no gravity, 

for now I'm just a candle trying to stay lit in this windy night. 

Got to crush my fantasies of how this life is supposed to be

Bring my broken heart to an invisible king with a hope one day you might answer me, so I pray don't you abandon me. 

Your silence kills me; 

I wouldn't have it any other way. 

Is it wrong to think you might speak to me? 

You might speak, would it be words and what would you say? 

It's so heavy a heavy price to pay 

Your silence."

-Matisyahu "Silence" 

I feel like a candle trying to say lit in a windy night.
El HaNe'eman