Day 5: Yellow Rope

Taylor at the Rally for Life Last year.
So much joy that day!

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, my favorite poet, has struck a chord in my heart once again - which doesn't really come as a surprise. This morning I went to pray at the mill and there were so many people there, I'd bet 15 at one point, and it gives me so much hope. It's strange to stare at the yellow rope 40 Days for Life has set out to mark the line between public and private property because on one side, the mill, there is so much sadness and darkness and death, and then on the public side, where we stand, there is prayer and dedication, love and hope. I feel so blessed to be on this side of the yellow line, but more than anything I wish the rope would disappear and the barrier between the love that we, as Pro-Lifers, have to share could overflow onto the private property, into the hearts of those conflicted young mothers.

This is one stanza from the poem "The Creed to Be" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox:

And clearer, sweeter, day by day,
Its mandate echoes from the skies,Go roll the stone of self away,
And let the Christ within thee rise.

If we truly want to make a change, we must roll the stones of self away and work to strip our world of the "yellow ropes" that separate the darkness from the light, the hope. It is in reaching in little ways that we can bring down the wall between Life and death. It is in taking this movement person by person, woman by woman, father by father, and especially child by child that we will be able to overcome the Culture of Death.

Day 4: Victory

I was unable to update yesterday but there was such a victory this week.

I found out that a friend of mine had her baby recently. When I met her she was 17 weeks pregnant, abortion-minded, and just very conflicted and under a lot of stress.

When I received word about the birth I was so excited! I just thought wow, this is real... women do CHOOSE LIFE! I prayed for her so much this year and tried, with all of my grand 18 yr. old wisdom, to be of some assistance (what can you say to someone who says "I don't think God is real anymore and I have an appointment for an abortion tomorrow"?) and although I personally really didn't have much advice to bestow on her it was wonderful to see how others could reach out and help her, how others could relate to her and really show her there are people who want to help you and love you.

The icing on the Pro-Life cake was when I heard the baby's name. It is the same name I have had picked out for my first born son for years. Not sure if I'll still keep it for my baby name now (gotta be original, right?) but it gave me chills that this child - the first child I have actually known while his life was in danger of destruction - will have the same name that I'd always wanted for my own first child. I don't know how to explain why it feels so special, it just does.

Day 3: We're Right

If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking.
-Buddhist Proverb



Outside the courthouse in Dallas
where Roe v. Wade was first filed.

 Of all the uncertainties that one may encounter in this war- are my prayers being heard? are my efforts making a difference? is all my hard work in vain? - the one constant we can always cling to is knowing that we have been chosen to defend the truth about Life. We are blessed in our knowledge by knowing that we, regardless of each battle that may feel lost, will win the war in the end- for Truth will always emerge, although some may try to cast a shadow over it in the forms of ignorance, bitterness, and denial. If Pro-Aborts are really Pro-"Choice," why not choose the Truth? Life begins at conception, folks. If that is the only ground that we can all agree on - it is, in fact, a solid, biological truth - then I don't understand how there can even be further discussion on the matter. Just a little thought today.

Wish I could spend more time thinking on this, but as I discussed yesterday, so much homework that must be done that really makes no positive difference in my life, no intellectual growth so far this semester. I just wish my classes were teaching things that would actually encourage new thinking... not just reading boring, unproductive books or learning about old political figures whose names all seem so interchangeable.



Day 2: A Poem

Today I was wandering around a website of poems by my very favorite poet, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, and I found this one and felt that it could very easily be applied to the Pro-Life movement and some of the frustrations I discussed yesterday:

Preaching vs. Practice

It is easy to sit in the sunshine
And talk to the man in the shade;
It is easy to float in a well-trimmed boat,
And point out the places to wade.

But once we pass into the shadows,
We murmur and fret and frown,
And, our length from the bank, we shout for a plank,
Or throw up our hands and go down.

It is easy to sit in your carriage,
And counsel the man on foot,
But get down and walk, and you'll change your talk,
As you feel the peg in your boot.

It is easy to tell the toiler
How best he can carry his pack,
But no one can rate a burden's weight
Until it has been on his back.

The up-curled mouth of pleasure,
Can prate of sorrow's worth,
But give it a sip, and a wryer lip,
Was never made on earth.

This week, I am definitely "feeling the peg in my boot." It is hard for me to know of the injustices the Unborn are facing and not be able to commit myself wholeheartedly to it. I feel so helpless sometimes. I'm finding myself bitter against my homework & my classes because I feel like I could be doing so much more to actually make a change rather than learn about little historical facts or other things that seem to vanish once the unit test is over. It's been one of those weeks where I just need to listen to "You Are Loved (Don't Give Up)" by Josh Groban on repeat. Praying for all those who began 40 Days for Life this morning.

Day 1: Apathy

I'm finding myself disheartened in a new way recently. In the past, it has been the ignorance of the truth that brought me down in the battle for Life- those misinformed folks who cannot see the life in the eyes of the unborn child, who are deaf to the beats of the little hearts in ultrasound exams- but now my strength is being tested by an unexpected evil: apathy.

I consider it a blessing, although at times it feels almost like a curse, to have become aware of the tragedies and the injustices facing the unborn when I did; the sooner one becomes aware of a problem, the more time one has to correct it. However, I've found that the "informed" members of my generation of young adults - who are so quick to become impassioned about environmental matters, or the "green" movement - prefer laziness and ease to awareness and attaining justice.

Studies claim that college campuses are becoming increasingly Pro-Life, which is wonderful, but this change in Life ideologies is occuring through a checkmark in a box on a survey when it should be occuring through a stirring in the depths of one's heart. If our hearts are not ignited for Life, if we do not burn with desire to end the killing and end the injustices towards the unborn, the mothers, the fathers- then what are we doing with our beliefs and our awareness? We are simply taking the responsibility that comes with this knowledge and ignoring it. While abortionists are taking these tiny children, these little glimpses of God, and, as if they were candles, blowing them out before they can even show their light to the world- we are taking the embers of a revolution and extinguishing them before they can grow to a flame which can, aided by a gust of truth & increased awareness, grow and grow until it has completely consumed and destroyed this death-accepting society we are living in. It just takes one bit of the truth, one bit of responsibility, one moment to accept the responsibility of what we have been revealed, one moment for us to each accept God's calling through each revelation. When we actively pursue the truth about abortion we are accepting the challenge to do whatever we can to put an end to the killings.

As of lately, apathy is the greatest evil I am facing in my daily battle for Life. It is everywhere- it is in our Pro-Life clubs, it is in our movement, as well as outside of the movement - as one could expect. We must not allow ourselves to fall into the apathetic trap that our busy schedules, homework, or other distractions present for us. We must make Life not just a priority, but the priority. I can think of about 50 million people who would tell you that this fight is worth it- but unfortunately, they were not granted their right to be born, they were never allowed to speak up and ask for someone to fight for them.