Source of Life, Taker of Life, Transformer of Life, Life Itself
We implore you—hear us.
Let us hear ourselves.
Let us hear our own cries for help.
Let us hear the pangs that rise from our bodies.
Let us hear our bodies.
Let us hear our breaths.
Let us hear our living soul, its bellowing laughter and unquenchable fire.
Let us hear our being moaning under the burdens of our own doing.
Let us hear our own weight crush the earth which nourish us.
Let us hear our cells cry out for nourishment.
Let us hear our own nature, longing to be.
Let us hear our loving being, longing to see.
We implore you—see us.
Let us see ourselves.
Let us see that we are not alone.
that life has riches and we can breathe them all in.
that we need not be afraid, but instead take comfort.
Let us see in order to distinguish what is right and what is true.
Let us see the effervescent longings of others to like us without our feeling obliged.
Let us see the lakes of furious madness that pull us under.
Let us see what forces us to succumb to wrongs.
Let us see that singular moment when we could say no with triumph, to step back, look in, and laugh.
Let us see that most absurd point of clarity when change can happen.
Let us find that lost ground that all humanity walk on as if they were one people.
Let us see the versions of ourselves that could have been if we had lived those lives we don't know.
Let us see and understand and accept who they have become that we are not.
Let us see what wicked lies divide us, so we can be who we are.
We implore you— be us, be in us, be of us, be for us.
Let us be that gardener who thinks not of grand schemes as she touches the growing wonder of flowers.
Let us be that satisfied customer, the one who looks foolish because she is happy.
Let us be that strange person who is not overcritical or overanalyzing, who can let life in.
Let us be that retired actor, tired of being drama king, he is no longer in a play.
Let us be that musician no one hears, who yet composed another spoiled libretto that sees the trash.
Let us be that ambitious girl whose home is so far from school and she has to trek mountains clutching to her dreams.
Let us be that expressionless exotic face you cannot read.
Let us be that Filipino overseas worker who has to leave her family for years in order to feed them, only to be tortured by her employer, and tried by their law for theft she did not commit.
Let us be that student activist in the far east who can't understand why she is underestimated only because she does not have power.
Let us be that person who understands that power does not make everything legitimate.
Let us be that person who suffers for others.
Let us be that person who comes to worship in order to understand.
Let us worship.