Stuff

This has nothing to do with the poem,
but it made me chuckle.

Prayer intentions with a group of teens:
an aunt, a teacher, one day someone's
cat. There's one guy who always says he
wants to pray for me, and I'm not sure if
it's to be a better teacher than I am, or stay
on my good side, or what, but I will take it.
"I need a lot of prayer," I say. Today I mentioned
praying for my grandkids. After the "amen"
a boy(but not the one who prays for me, another
class) said, "So what's going on with them?
Why do they need prayer?" "Just stuff," I said.
"There's always stuff, in life,"
and he agreed. They all agreed, I think, a somber
moment when the girls there on the side wall
stopped their conversation and reflected that
their Stuff was not unique, perhaps, and maybe
even not as bad as someone else's.


(c) Ellen Gillette, 2015