"I'm a lifelong Catholic who has had the strange, difficult, and wonderful experience of finally, in my mid-30s, coming to terms with the reality that I experience sexual and romantic attraction to both men and women. The Lord and I have been on a beautiful journey over the past couple of years in which he is teaching me to have the courage to look at myself and to see all of me - and therefore to be able to surrender more fully all of me."
What would you like to share with us?
A poem. I don't write poems. But in the past week I've written two poems. So here's one of them...
*Brook
To be reverenced
I didn’t like to look at me,
Because I was ugly.
Because I was a mess.
Because I was me.
So I looked at you.
I looked away.
You called me forward.
To look at you? I asked
Let’s look at you, you replied.
Then, a gesture of welcome:
Stripped of my socks
And the shoes I thought too stinky to remove
Revealing tightly bound varieties of shame,
Hidden thoughts and feelings squashed down
So that nobody had to see them,
Least of all me.
I exposed these feet so weary from the journey.
Restless feet that longed to wander,
But even more, to be cherished and embraced.
To be reverenced, even.
The wounds on these tired feet
You wept over and washed,
Cleansed and kissed.
I showed you my wounds
And you showed me yours.
We laughed and cried and I found rest.