love your enemies and pray for those who persecute
we pray out of need
out of
love
and that love extends by prayer
and then by action
to our enemies
even
the active persecutors
and we are not asked to take part in s and m
but
to go for healthy if serving
and sacrificial
and that seems a mystery
I guess
for which the Bible offers precedent
even
as paradox
but there is need
and
there is
prayer
yes
for thanksgiving and other
reasons
too
prayer for the friendly people
also
thus for each and every
as
needs press
we ask
then
move in the world
say
as wise as
serpents
and as gentle as doves
c l couch
Matthew 5:44, 10:16, also Psalm 65:3, Proverbs 24:17 (and, you know, verses and passages around)
photo by iso topon on Unsplash
maybe I drafted this because I need reminding not of the suggestion but direction
Second Day of Christmas
(Boxing Day)
Boxing Day
I heard it was British
And in a loosely associated way
Thought maybe it involved
Kangaroos, which
I had seen boxing in cartoons
I gather now
The boxes have to do with gifts
Since this is the day the British
Present each other with, well, presents
I guess for them it is as well
The second day of Christmas
Two turtledoves
I’m not sure when the Yule log is lit
Yesterday? The first? The sixth of January,
Twelfth Night?
The first day when it’s cold?
And mummers,
Strangely costumed people—
Who became carolers
Or was it the carolers who transformed?
I’ve seen the costumes
There is a parade in Philadelphia
Some are ridiculous
Some are the occult totemized
What’s going on?
These are my people
The English and the Irish
The Scots and the Welsh
They started coming here
In the fifteenth century
Through to a couple of generations ago
Did they want to get away from
All that? Or
Was it their own change
In what they knew to have?
I was a WASP
I am from Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Ohio
With a brief adventure in
California
I am too old for young adventures now
Maybe one more expedition with
The older soldiers of Ulysses
By way of Tennyson
Maybe my gift today will be
A little understanding
Where I was
Who I am
Who might I be
As I am
For you
C L Couch
By Peretz Partensky from San Francisco, USA – White Doves at the Blue Mosque, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24568193
clcouch123 
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