Today we wish Holy Shenanigans a happy 2nd birthday... and talk about the intersection between faith, traumatic experiences, and trauma recovery with Jennifer Ohman-Rodriguez.
About today's guest:
Jennifer Ohman-Rodriguez is in the first call process toward ordination in Word and Sacrament ministry in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Her first book, A Time to Mourn and a Time to Dance: A Love Story of Grief, Trauma, Healing, and Faith, is published by Chalice Press. Ohman-Rodriguez is a frequent workshop presenter in trauma-informed spiritual care and also curates the Trauma Recovery Page at Compassionate Christianity. She holds master’s degrees in early child development and divinity.
This weeks' poem:
It's only just the dawn
October’s chill is falling, fog is rolling, and crickets sigh. A train is on track with mourning’s blight and wheel clack in the mid-of-night.
There’s always something moving, even a drowsy lark.
There’s always changes coming, even in the deepest dark.
True mercy can’t be kept apart from the shadows of life and love. Mercy stretches her arms to embrace the whole sad world and breach the great divide.
There’s always someone walking, in the sweaty heat of life.
There’s always someone moving, shifting between dark and bright.
Wandering souls aren’t lost, when they remember their cause. They hold tight to hope in the darkest night or the cold of an early frost.
There’s always someone trying to tell you what you’ve done.
There’s always someone saying, you’ve lost and it can’t be won.
There’s a train that travels in mercy and it fills the world with grace. On this train all are welcome – it’s no matter of beauty, wealth or place.
There is One who says you’re accepted. There is One who extends all the grace.
This is One who banishes the darkness and ushers in the morning light to shine on every face.
Don’t heed those words of worry. Don’t let them hold you down.
Wait for morning’s dawning that streams beams of light all around.
Look to the east and keep on walking – you’re walking in the sun.
There’s always something moving, even a drowsy lark.
There’s always mercy coming, even in the deepest dark.
The journey’s not yet over – it’s only, just the dawn.
Copyright Tara Eastman 2016
Wild Goose Festival is a transformational community grounded in faith-inspired social justice. Wherever we come together we learn and grow by co-creating art, music, story, theater, and spectacle, engaging in a wide variety of robust, courageous conversations with each other and with thought leaders and artists from other communities. Listeners of Holy Shenanigans Podcast can use the discount code a-tle24 for a $50 discount off the price of an adult weekend ticket!
Pastor Tara Lamont Eastman is an Ordained Minister of Word & Sacrament in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. She was a contributing writer to the Collaborate Lutheran Student Bible and the Connect Sunday School curriculum, published by Sparkhouse.