To see God in others
Is spectacularly easy
As long as I carefully chose
Whom I look at

With some, it is hard NOT
To see God
Woody, Wendy, Norma
So many close friends
My writing group
My meditation group
God is so easy to see

But also

That panhandler on the corner
With the cardboard sign
Impossible to read
That scruffy panhandler
Maybe, according to many friends
A con artist
I see God shining through him

Or is it
Possibly
That I merely see God reflected
In my easy generosity

That tantruming toddler
Embarrassing his mother
In the aisles of the grocery store
I see God in her and in her mother

Or is it 
Possibly
That I merely see God reflected
In my easy compassion

My often complaining mother
Who calls me at 10:00 at night
On her cell phone
To tell me her phone isn’t working
I see God in her

Or is it
Possibly
That I merely see God reflected
In my easy acceptance

But what about my troubled step-daughter
Middle-aged
Still needing her daddy
Desperately
His money, his help, his support

What about the needy young friend
Who lived with us for a year
Whom we supported through
Recovery from the trauma of COVID nursing
Who left angrily the first time
We needed a boundary

I blew it

I yelled at both of them
Ugly hurtful yelling
No generosity
No compassion
No acceptance

No reflection of my own goodness
In which to see God

Help me, please, dear Goddess Mother
To see You in them
In their neediness
And even in me
In my ugliness