Day 35—Holy Monday, April 14, 2025

Matthew 11:28

"Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”

I feel very fortunate that as an employee at RCPC, I am afforded time away for Continuing Education. Last fall, I went to the Hudson Valley to a poetry conference led by poet and theologian - Pádraig Ó Tuama. We read poetry and wrote poetry.

During my stay in the Hudson Valley, my daughter, Maddie and her friend Shannon came to visit me and stay a couple of days. One afternoon we were sitting out on the picnic table, in the yard of our simple A-frame rental out in the woods. We were drawing and writing poetry in our journals. Maddie drew this picture …

by Maddie Sackett

One of the themes Pádraig gave us in the crafting of a poem was “a creedal statement.” He asked us to write “I believe …” He encouraged us to be both serious and playful. I wrote mine to Maddie and in the poem, I reflected on her words and her beautiful drawing.

“I Believe …”

I believe the early bird gets the worm and the worm should be shared.

I believe love wins & hate reveals.

I believe listening is best done in the quiet, preferably in the woods outside an A-frame.

I believe children are heard and seen, heard and seen, and heard and seen..

serving as sages and prophets to foolish adults.

I believe in kindness and if you choose otherwise, consider the cost.

I believe eggs are good on everything and also good on nothing. They are just good.

I believe a dog is a woman’s best friend, and no fur, slobber, or midnight snores could change that.

I believe in water in every form - I live to cut through it and get to the other side.

I believe in God and a love resurrected, redeemed, made new - for you and me.

I believe we are forgiven and forgiven again.

But at the end of my creed and your creed there is still you and there is still me.

And then there is this place, that is made better by what we hold and don't hold.

You called it a place where you can lay down what you carry,

And I can too.

You said this is a place where you can rest.

God knows you have seen and have carried too much in just 23 years.

I choose our Lord, I will lay what I carry on the colt and I too will lay down before him.

For me it has been better to live that way.

Hosanna! We lift up your name, as we lay down our burdens!

No regrets- I believe Hope has saved us both.

I choose this,

but it will be argued and has since before St Augustine,

that it has chosen me.

-Leigh Sackett