and i sing of dionysus — o! ivy-crowned god with a smile as dark as the secrets he  keeps. i sing and i dance, a flurry of humanity let loose until i am joy unbound! the bindings  cannot hold me just as they could not hold you!  sweet-smelling god, i ask you to bless me as  you bless the vines of the wood. may i grow  unfettered, reaching up, up, up! may my voice be loud! may my body shift and change! and may this change be a blessing unto you! oh, dark-curled god, flushed with wine and eternal youth — may  i bloom, bloom, and bloom! give me the will to  never back away from the awe-struck joy that it is to be alive — may i never shrink but only grow as you grew from impossibility. may i find favor in your heart & may your hands turn my meekness into wild opportunity. 

Had to stop and check out this beauty during a recent family road trip.

[A piece of cake on a plate. Caption: And the polished cherry wood of the pews and the golden tassels on the hymnals.]

My children 😭😭😭

After the Bible, the hymn book is next. And remember, I do not say a songbook or a book of gospel songs, but a real hymnal containing the cream of the great Christian hymns left to us by the ages.

With your own love may I be filled and by your Holy Spirit willed, that all I touch, whatever I do, may be divinely touched by you.

i sing to thee, poseidon — o lord of the everdark waters — to him who moves the earth, who feeds from the fruitless sea,  o savior, helper, destroyer, & god — i sing  to thee. give me the heart to look upon  the storm ; give grace to my feet, let me  step through upon unbroken water & let the earth tremble with your strength. lord  of the sea — vast and endless is your glory as radiant as sunlight through gentle tides ;  bless me to be as foam upon the waters —  spray upon the wind — my boat unshattered and constantly sailing towards your sharp horizons —