We have been shattered into pieces
divisive patter has demeaned us
Let’s commit to redeem peace around us.
In this room
In this city,
Let our faith bloom in the gritty places
Among all creeds and races.
Let our Rotary service
shine to all who observe us.
.
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For free use within Rotary. Please give acknowledge Shawn Bird of Shuswap Rotary as the author when you present the invocation. Please also leave a message for her in the comments so others know where and when this invocation has been used.
At this difficult season
When opinions impale reason
May we not divide
but warmly abide
within a strong fellowship
built on relationships
of respectful courtesy
as we serve our community.
May we rise as *votary
to the service of Rotary.
.
*vocabulary- a ‘votary’ is a devoted adherent.
For free use within Rotary. Please credit Shawn Bird of Shuswap Rotary, District 5060 with authorship when you present the invocation at your club, and please leave a comment below so Rotarians know when and where it’s been used. Thank you.
In times of fear and panic,
Let us be a force of calm.
Let those who are trembling,
find us safe to lean upon.
May we be the voice of reason.
May we comfort the oppressed.
May we show our compassion
to those who’re most distressed.
.
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Free for use in Rotary Clubs. Please credit Shawn Bird of Shuswap Rotary (5060 BC Canada) when you use it, and leave a note in the comments below so folks know where it’s been used. Thanks.
A Rotary Invocation poem:
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Service happens in laughter and friendship.
Service happens in quiet conviction.
Service happens with firm intention.
Service happens in growing kinship
to all humanity in attention.
to Service Above Self.
Äiti was crying when I left
hugging me close and weeping.
“Äiti?”
“Et unohta” she whispered.
Don’t forget.
“Muistat sinun Suomen kielesta,
en osaa puhua englanti!” she sniffed.
You have to remember your Finnish!
I can’t speak English!
“Minä muistan, Äiti.”
I will remember.
Years dripped by
on memories and melancholy
but still
Muistan, Äiti.
Most ferns unfold their fronds
beneath the trees in shady glades.
Along the winding roads
in the Olympic peninsula
ferns view a new perspective,
rooting into the moss
that wraps and drapes the trees.
Instead of remaining on forest floor the fern explore
the sights and sounds high above ground
the wind blown coast
the ocean salt.
Some ferns take advantage of a willing host
to see more of the world.
Their lives may be shorter
and less spread out,
but their perspective is expansive
without a doubt.
.
.
I was astounded to see what I’d call a Boston fern growing all along the roads, from the mossy trunks of all sorts of trees between Forks and Port Angeles* in Washington State. Huge ones were beneath the trees on the shady side of the road, but on the west side of the road, where the moss was thickest on the trees, the same ferns were growing from out of the moss all the way up the trunks. I didn’t see huge established ferns, just single fronds unfurled on the trees, but dozens on each tree. It kind of reminded me of being an exchange student, taking root in a new location, and seeing the world from a different view. 🙂
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*This is the road that Edward Cullen takes at ridiculous speeds in his Volvo in the Twilight books. Personally, I don’t think even someone with supernatural powers should be driving faster than 60 miles/hr on that road! 😉
Duplicate post (also on rotaryinvocations.wordpress.com) Tonight my little Rotary Club held our annual auction. With the support of very generous guests, we raised over $37,000 for our projects. We are a small but very active club. Two of our members regularly travel to Africa to a school where we sponsor 200 school lunches, some members sponsor tuition, and we help them with other projects, like a computer lab, and a water tower. One of our members takes a dental team to the mountains of Ecuador. We donate funds to vaccinate 20 children against polio every week. Closer to home we have many community projects. Here is the non-sectarian invocation that I presented tonight:
Margaret Mead said,
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
Let us be thankful for the small group of committed people who, with your help tonight, are changing the world
one lunch,
One polio vaccination
One dental filling
One community project at a time.
Let us be thankful for the opportunity to gather together for a good meal with good friends.
Let us be thankful.
I thought I’d share with you this recent comment I left on the blog of a young lady recently returned from time abroad (slightly edited for broader audience!)
We have a saying in Rotary, “Once an exchange student, always an exchange student.”
If I am in a room, outbound exchange students find me, whether they know I was one or not. They bounce in their chairs, anticipating their year, and I share their enthusiasm, offer packing tips, and give them hugs.
At school, students from far away sit in my class room to discuss ‘life’ in the surreal bubble that is an inbound exchange year. They vent their frustrations, shout their celebrations, observe their confusions. I listen, encourage, bake, and give them hugs.
They write when they’re back home, rebound students, about the strange dream that their year abroad becomes in memory. The students my club sent join me at my table at our Rotary meeting upon their return in a numbed stupor. I commiserate about the loss they’re experiencing, the strange sensation of being home, but being far from home. I give them hugs.
See that sad face? That’s me on my last day in Finland posing with my 4th host family. That is the face of a broken heart. Still miss them and think of them every day! (Thank heaven for Facebook).
We are tied by the experience of youth exchange, because it’s all paradox. We feel disconnected and connected. Lost and found. Happy and sad.
We each leave pieces of our heart behind in these places that become our second homes, and we never get them back. Hopefully, those we love and leave behind, cherish those pieces for the precious parts of ourselves that they are. Sometimes we are blessed with an opportunity to hold those people against our hearts again, but most of the people who made such a profound impact on our lives, we will never touch again. It is a bitter sweet reality of those who live and love abroad.
Welcome home. Welcome to life with pieces missing. We just go on. We find others with missing pieces and we hold each other as we celebrate what we have known.
Rotary Youth Exchange:
Opening minds and breaking hearts
since 1929.
If you know any exchange students returning home this month. Listen to their stories, ask questions about their year, and give them hugs. They really need them right now.
A poem originally posted November 2010 for your reading pleasure.
She trusts him
-the truth of him
–the truth of them
but she fears
the helplessness
-having watched him
unfold and unravel
under eyes that glowed
with glorious attention.
Temptation trails closely
behind such glowing eyes
and apparently intelligence
and good intention
are not always
adequte protection
from ampilified admiration.
That’s the truth of them
-the truth of him
–the truth of trust.
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A submission for One Shot Wednesday. Check out the poets.
http://www.polioeradication.org/Dataandmonitoring/Poliothisweek.aspx
Wow. From a thousand cases a DAY when Rotary started the campaign to eradicate polio back in 1985 to only 134 cases so far in ALL of 2012!!
Yay Rotary and partners! We’re THIS CLOSE to ending polio!
Shawn L. Bird 