ON ANOTHER LEVEL
“Enlightenment”
May is traditionally when our Affirmation program culminates in a much anticipated Affirmation Service at which the youth present their credos and their mentors respond. This year we will have a special Affirmation service at which former mentors and advisors will speak of their experience and former Affirmands will offer music, poetry, and ritual. As always this should be an enlightening worship service.
One of last year’s Affirmands, wrote several poems for this service and will read one then. The following poem spoke to me of her experience of enlightenment in the Affirmation process and of how she transferred that to her whole life.
Turn right,
We turn right,
Re-calculating.
Every move we make
Following directions
Requires a recheck
Dead wrong
No matter what we do,
But we get there anyway.
No matter which way
When night turns day
Everything will be okay,
Through affirmation I learned
You don’t always have to know where
you’re going
To get there,
And you don’t have to swear
To never forget a prayer
You don’t need to believe in a god
Or gods
Or goddesses
To believe in something,
And you don’t have to believe in anything
To have a direction,
And directions
Don’t have to lead you anywhere
Where you go
And what you know
Can show
The world
More than the colors of the rainbow
The colors of your soul
Can shine brighter than the sun,
I could simplify and say it was fun,
But that’s just where it begun,
It was an adventure
And a bonding experience
It was a lesson in life
And a lesson in my life
And a lesson
In learning what I never knew
I needed to know,
Affirmation
Is a saving grace,
If you’re in a bad place,
Affirmation is a safe place,
Let me be the first to tell you
You will be loved,
And no one in that room will care
If you don’t have the same beliefs
Your beliefs are yours,
Affirmation
Lets you color your own world,
Outside any lines
— Affirmand
Vicki Merriam, Director of Religious Education
