In Celebration of Community

I came to community with a shining, whole pedestal.
The vines enveloped it, tangled and messy.
Old wounds were ripped open
as the mirror to the selves I built
glared ugly, cringing.

You grabbing at me, I could almost hear you in your screaming:
“I don’t like YOU.
You can’t charm me,
and that is the truth”.

My lesser, squashed shadows wept.

But in some mysterious God-given,
God-present moment of hurt and pain
came your embrace.
An absolution, a struggling transformation.

You saw through my perfect shining mirror
and pulled my tangled shadows a little into the light,
pulled my shining pedestal a little into the shadows.