Mud Children

Columbia’s Mud Children.

I dreamed

that I was given

a mission

to go and collect funds

for the

Mud Children.

Someone gave me

an umbrella

and some balloons

and told me,

Let LOVE

Lift you…………………..



So I thought of the

poor

suffering

Mud Children

and immediately

I was in the air.

over houses over highways

over fields over mountains

until

I was

over the sea.



I traveled to many different lands

of many different peoples

and I cried

save the Mud Children!

your LOVE……………

and everyone gave handfuls

armfuls

hat-fuls

of little gold and silver coins.

Some gave dollars……………………



Your Love

has lifted me higher

than I’ve ever

been lifted

before……………..



They followed me wherever I went.

I went singing and begging

begging

for the

‘Children……………………

Your LOVE

has lifted me………….

and I heard them shouting

Higher!..........HIGHER!........................

Until

I was

over the seas of this land

and gone.



There was India

and Indonesia

Palestine

Lebanon

Germany

Greece

Even Africa, I mused

where I had gathered

for

the Mud Children.

My bags were full to bursting

yet

LOVE

kept lifting me.

I said to a child in China

who had given me her piggybank

Here take a balloon

with LOVE written on it.

I said

now

let LOVE

lift you

and she went

Up

Up

Up

Up! In the air……………..



So many blessings

so much cheer

will these little pennies bring

to Mud Children,

I thought;

yet there was

still

something

lacking.



There was places

that had

just as many

or perhaps even more

Mud Children

than in Columbia.

In Afric

in Greece

Germany

Lebanon

Palestine……………

and more places.

These people

I thought,

would give me nothing

for Mud Children.



As I was passing

out of China

I saw

a little peasant child

standing at her door

gazing into the sky

as if

looking

for me.

I came by her

and said,

Child, what are you looking for?

She said,

To give this to

my sisters and brothers

in Columbia.

And into my hand

she put

her last

brass

penny.

Someone, she said,

may need it more than I.



I thought

of those who had given

some of the best

of their wealth

the most hefty sums

that my pouches

were weighted to bear me down.

Yet this child

gave her last brass penny…..

Here were Mud Children

on the doorsteps of this land

yet they gave away such great sums

How noble, I thought,

or

how

foolish…………….



Child, I said,

keep your penny.

But what about

the poor Mud Children?

she asked;

You can give them

something even more precious

than this penny.

What, oh tell me!

she cried,

that I may give them some.

Send them

your

LOVE.

Where is it? She asked,

can you buy some

with a penny?

No.

But if you love them

with all your heart

then you will have

an

abundant

supply.

Then take it, she said,

give them

my LOVE…….



Then she touched her hand

to her bosom

and when she extended it

towards me again

it glowed with the embers

of a Most Holy Light………….

I touched her hand

and took the glow

and with my own

touched my breast

and the glow disappeared.

Now, I said,

I will take your LOVE

to the

Mud Children.



But your bags are so heavy

she said,

can you still fly?

Do you believe

I asked her instead,

that LOVE

will

lift me?

I do! She cried.

Then she squeezed her eyes shut

and clasped her hands tight

and

I dropped

one of the bags of golden pennies

at her feet.

And before I knew

what had possessed me

I was over the sea

and gone.

Farewell, Little Mud Child of a Different  Land,

your LOVE

will save your soul.



So, since then

I had visited the Mud Children

from all over the world

and have collected

more precious gifts

than I already had.

But while the little golden glows

made my heart lighter,

the bags of burnished gold

only encumbered it.

So I dropped them into

Little Mud Hands

of Other Mud Lands

and I found I could fly easier…………….



So I returned to

my own land

where they waited for me

to give them the riches

to give to the Mud Children

in Columbia.

I had none

except

the radiance

of the golden glowings

in my breast.

I said

I have neither silver

nor gold,

and all the balloons have gone

but from every land

under God’s heaven

have been given me

prayers

and tears

and sympathy

to convey to them

from the hearts

of innocent

compassionate

loving

PEOPLES

of all nations

and tongues

and tribes,

all sent Special Delivery

tied up

in

LOVE……………..



Then they took the umbrella

and they took the song

but they could take

the glow.

Well,

they said,

Go and deliver

your Special Gift.

I smiled.

The Mud Children

of Columbia

are

a

Very Special People…………..



I woke.