Body-Talk: A Litany.   (After Ntozake Shange)

From : Praying with the Women Mystics,   Mary T. Malone

Body who are you?

I am your friend and closest partner

I am mother and father and often child.

Always I am your lover and spouse.

I found God in myself and I loved her, I loved her fiercely.

Body who are you?

I am the truth-teller:

I witness to your unknown and often unloved self.

I am the faithful messenger and recorder of your memories, your power.

I remember, I etch into skin and bone your hurts, your needs, your limits,

I found God in myself and I loved her, I loved her fiercely.

Body who are you?

I am the story of your life.

I am the text where all can read this story.

I am the stored wisdom of the joy and hurts of all the generations before you.

I found God in myself and I loved her, I loved her fiercely.

Body who are you?

I am the gift-giver.

Through me you live and move in God’s creation.

Through me you have your vital link with the rejoicing, groaning, travailing, beautiful universe.

I found God in myself and I loved her, I loved her fiercely.

Body who are you?

I am your partner in stress and pain; I carry your suffering.

I partner your spirit in bearing the barbs of hurt.

I found God in myself and I loved her, I loved her fiercely.

Body who are you?

I am your partner in joy and delight.

Through me you express the laughter and love that link you to your deepest self and your deepest love.

I found God in myself and I loved her, I loved her fiercely.

Body who are you?

I am the frontier you have barely explored.

I am always in touch with messages of invitation: Come explore this new land.

I am the manifestation of the miracle that is you.

I am the microcosm of the universe in which you live.

I found God in myself and I loved her, I loved her fiercely.

Body who are you?

I am the visible means through which you communicate, with eyes that see and weep and shine, with ears that heed and ignore and learn,

with hands that reach and heal and hurst and caress,

with nose that drinks in the fragrance of hope and the acidity of despair, with feet that run and tumble and falter and race.

I am who you are.

I am how who live.

I am always with you.

I found God in myself and I loved her, I loved her fiercely.

Body who are you?

I am the ground of your being.

In me all is made one.

I found God in myself and I loved her, I loved her fiercely.