[A submission for Evolving Statements of Faith. This is a creed, written at the start of last year.]

Credo For January 2013

I believe in God.

(Except when I don’t.)

When others tell me who God is,
I’m believing not so much.

When I kiss my daughters goodnight,
my belief is overwhelming.

I believe in people.
All those humans
being in this world.

I believe in the
joy and
laughter and
freedom
people bring to the world.

I believe
in time,
they will disappoint me.

I love them still.

I believe in gravity.
That gentle force
Holding me to my home.

That smiles gently
At my fluttering
attempts to fly.
And lets me fall
when it is time
to be of the ground
again.

And Oh! This breath.
This sweet breath
inhaling the raw,
unrestrained exhalations
of the world.

Breathing out all the Love and
Peace and
Joy and
Wonder
the light of my heart can generate.
My heart, so fragile,
ready to break into
a billion
somethings.
Like a nebula
sitting on the eastern hip
of Orion as it gives birth to
a billion
stars.

But Creeds
aren’t about
Stars or
Nebulae or
Hearts or
Fragile Things or
Breathing or
Gravity.
(So you say.)

A Good Creed
is a statement of
What I Believe.
A guide to my actions.

Actions like
staring at the image of
Orion’s Flame Nebula
for hours on end.
Wondering.
The star Orionis
one thousand seventy light years away.
So far that we measure the distance in time.
Hurtling through the Universe,
one hundred thirteen thousand miles per hour.
God’s fastball.

I believe in my heart
breaking into
A billion somethings as
I breathe the exhalations of the world.
And transform them into Love
For the humans that
disappoint and
laugh and
weep and
love me too.

I believe in God.
(And even when I don’t)
God believes in me:

Kissing my daughters goodnight.
Belief overwhelming.