Finding Easter

Eagles in Late March

Easter came early or maybe we went looking for it. Today it could be seen, could be felt
along the Mississippi River in Red Wing and Wabasha.

Beneath the bluffs on route to Red Wing we left the urban complexities behind
and looked at mauve and taupe trees on hillsides and bluffs we wanted to embrace.

Hearing the weather was going to be less desirable for an outing tomorrow, we sought
the beauty of Lake Pepin today.

At first the "lake" was shrouded in a bluish gray under an overcast sky. But then the sun
lifted everything and the shadows, the brilliance of the frozen river, held us captive.
My friend and I talked to a bartender who found his spot overlooking the river and there has stayed for nine years. He'll never have an office view so wondrous--and he knows it.

I think my friend was once a Native American. She spotted the eagles and osprey,
hawks, and barn swallows that to me are so fluid in flight.

No one picked today to seek the river out. So it was ours. On the one hand there was still
snow that has it's own unmarked beauty, and on the other, spring was also near.
It was like winter and spring were holding hands.

Fifty seagulls had a family reunion on a block of ice and road the river.

"Do you think they know they're moving?"

"Yes, they know," I answered.

Once an eagle was pointed out for me, I couldn't let it go. I kept watching it sitting on a branch of a tree near the open water. We saw more eagles higher in the sky, but they had a mission they weren't sharing.

We had a feast but it wasn't table food; it was the soul food of nature.

We topped off the day by finding Serendipity Co-Op Art Gallery. I scooped up wondrous photos of perhaps the last healthy moose in MN, Split Rock Light House with the sun reflecting off it's windows in a God-wave, geese with goslings, and sailboats set against sunsets.

Aren't we always looking for redemption? We draw inspiration from an altar, a belief,
and rejoice in the saga of early spring finding God was there--all along. What a prayer.

Angels Over Us - A Letter to my Congressional Representative

Valencia Castle, Valencia, Spain

Congressman John Kline

US House of Representatives

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Dear Representative Kline,

I am one of your constituents; I am a poet. I’m writing on one over-riding issue and that is the pandemic of violence in our culture.

How I long to see, to hear--you step forward on universal background checks, mental health services for troubled children and their families, and the removal of assault weapons off our streets. School safety, yes, but more than school safety is required.

I wonder as the days have gone by since the immense tragedy at Newtown, how all those we've lost can bear looking through the clouds. For when they look down, they see the blood of precious human beings bathed in the color of violence. Each luminous face must look at the others and say—not today. Not today. No, change. These links below speak to us—saying act!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/22/gun-deaths-us-newtown_n_2935686.html

We’ve all been rocked by Newtown, Connecticut. But the purpose of this letter is to urge you to look at the whole picture, not merely part of it.  I urge you to step forward with the dignified voice you possess. Later doesn’t work anymore. It’s a new day. It has to be now. It’s what the people want.

I pray your aids look at each other and say: Give him this one (meaning: Give Representative Klein, give you this letter.)

Every story of violent loss bears the name of a human being sent to bless the planet, not be slaughtered on it.

In that light, I wish to support the Mokos family who lost Diane Kriz: a sister, a daughter, a friend in Chicago in July of 1986. At 46, she was a mother of four. No solace can be taken for them in seeing someone arrested for the crime that forever changed Bob Mokos’ family. Imagine how important some controls on gun accessibility are to them. It is everything since they’ve lost someone who meant the most to them.

I ask you to look at causes vs. how to deal with results—on the attack on an elementary school in Connecticut. We must, as the majority of NRA members agree, put in place background checks across the United States. Along with that, we need a data base second to none.

But we also need to honestly look at the horrific amount of assault weapons in the hands of those who shouldn’t have weapons at all. Fear, crazy fear, and unfounded paranoia have lead to many Americans arming themselves like a militia to fight an imaginary army that doesn't exist (to take anyone’s rights).

We’ve created our own hell on Earth.

Focusing on school safety isn’t enough. As the visuals on the Huffington Post today show, it’s almost by doing nothing—we nearly bless the bloodbath.

Let’s change the view below the clouds as those we’ve lost to violence look down upon us.

May they say, with your help, with your courage to step forward: TODAY! Today is the day they’re sanctifying the loss of our lives and over two thousand more. Today they’re taking steps to save more lives.

                                      

Please make the difference only you can make. Stand for protecting us all.

Respectfully,

Connie Nelson Ahlberg

Writer in Residence

705 E Burnsville Parkway, Unit 106

Burnsville, MN 55337

Since the World Needs Blessing

 Saint Benin's Church Window, St. Patrick

Kilbennan, Ireland

County Galway, Ireland by Andreas F. Borchert

Since the World Needs Blessing

Ay Be Blessin' Thee

Held by Ye Heavenly Mother

Are Ye

From the day you were born;

Not just for the road ahead

But Grace for the road behind;

In gratitude for Thy father and Mother

That bore ye whether

Mornin' or night;

And what of luck, me darlin',

if not the Grace you

live out under God

In the Trinity Three in

 Thy daily walk,

Not ever proud 

But as quiet an' purposeful as the birds

Soaring above the sea wall,

Making no fuss

Of their flight or wings;

But prayin' as ye go;

and livin' that prayer:

Blessing as you meet

All Irish children 

And those that aren't:

Ye are blessed, Ye

are worthy 

of Abundant Grace!

Look at your face

in the glass;

Put a smile on God's 

Eternal Blessing 

for all of ye days!

Amen.

By Connie Nelson Ahlberg

March 16, 2013

Like Driftwood Left

Archangels Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel with Tobias

Like Driftwood Left

Dear Once-hurting Angel,

You must have wondered 

as your spirit ascended above

your body in death

Why, I'm being left,

left slumped over in a car

towed to an impound lot;

or lying in a wood

no one hoped you'd find;

Or bundled in a trunk; or flushed

out to sea with no trace;

Even my bones

are not together

you say;

I'm being left

strangled and mutilated;

How strange to die

Like things, left discarded

like driftwood; 

like driftwood no angels

seemed to bless;

Holy Girls, Youngest of Women, 

who never dreamed they'd 

 lose their life with someone they knew, and 

be discarded like last-weeks garbage,

Or simply spend time in a park

with the wrong boy;

And how did you die, Angel? 

A chorus of words calls back:

Mutilated, stabbed, or shot--

You spoke with a clear voice;

If angels weren't there

in your hidden seclusion; if you felt them not:

I'm praying them where you laid;

Praying them

Where you rose &

Where you lived and played;

You were made for joy

and prayers,

not control and violation

a male thought was

your due or because he 

was in the mood;

You've left us numb,

Left us hallow:

murder after murder

so quickly forgotten

because inside--we're horrified;

But something has happened

to us now - all the remaining

women

We feel, too--

Left like Driftwood

on the beaches of the world.

by Connie Nelson Ahlberg

2/25/2013

It's been a struggle to 

even keep up with the 

violence against women

in the Twin Cities and

beyond:

Anna Hurd 

Brittney Clardy

Kira Trevino

Zahra Baker's 

Skull was found in NC,

a young girl;

they're all young girls.

I had to write

to them and

about them:

Darlings all.

Prayer of the Ambitious

Crows Lake in North Sikkim by Carsten Nebel

Prayer of the Ambitious

My life lays before me

like an endless

dawn

and I am drawn
into my days

with total faith
that I shall win

a prized life;

Remind me 

You are timeless

beyond my endless dawn

and for wisdom,

I, all ambition,

need only draw

upon Thee.

By Connie Nelson Ahlberg

River Notes: Making A Life

River Notes

A wise woman said to 

her rapids' team:

you can form your body

round the flat rocks, getting

through while amazing 

your mind; you can be lucid

like a lake of compelling darkness

that is an old friend seductively

beckoning you forward; but the true

wonder always is the sounds of the river,

the wafting of the water like it's own symphony

and you can flow into the vibrations

and make a life.

February 9, 2013

Connie Nelson Ahlberg

Prayers of the Children

The Glorification of Mary by Botticelli

Prayers of the Children:

All Divinity Blessed

Children on the altar

Petitions in hand

Teachers standing there

Microphone in hand

With utter sweetness asking:

For the sick and the lonely

For the elderly and those departed;

Remember us, Lord and Mary, and

For New Life just started;

Heal us,

Gift of Peace,

Be our salvation

Ever Rising 

Under dear feet beneath

Grant lasting pardon;

Mercy, the gift of your hands,

We offer our joys, hurt, our sufferings,

So our transformation 

Stands; 

For lifting others

We aren't changed alone,

Save by loving, caring for each other:

Accept 

these offerings for

We are praying

  each other Home.

Written January 31, 2013

by Connie Nelson Ahlberg

All Rights Reserved.