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Heather Prince Doss

Musings of a multi-cultural, bi-vocational, solo pastor

The Lord of the Dance

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23rd Psalm for Dancers

The Lord loves to swing;
When he invites me to dance, my feet glide with ease
and my heart delights in movement and song.
With precision he leads me;
I know just how to move and just where to go.
With grace he guides me;
I dance without shame.
In his grip, I am free.

Even when my steps are tangled
or the rhythm eludes me,
still you are there, holding me by the hand.
You pull me back into the dance.

You set a song in the air so that joy pulses from my feet.
We push and pull one another in confident grace.
In your leading, my own dance shines.
I turn with confidence and kick in impromptu delight.
All of me is here in this dance.

Surely the hand of the Lord will lead me all the days of my life,
and I will dance in the halls of the Lord forever.

Authorship of Psalm 23 is generally attributed to David, a shepherd. He wrote about God from his own life experience. In the book “Finding the Groove: Composing a Jazz-Shaped Faith,” Robert Gelinas invites us to do the same. I love to dance and had an especially good time swing dancing during my sabbatical. So here’s an attempt to think of God through that lens. (Note: I used masculine language for God and assigned God the role of “lead” in this dance because in actual dance I prefer to follow, and I usually dance with men. Even so, I celebrate more fluidity around gender roles in social dancing.)

Poiema of Heather

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By Heather Prince Doss | May 2022

I will write her
with expressive eyes
deep as the ocean
sparkling as the stars
and just as volatile.
Already what you see is gone.

I will write her
with a heart that breaks
for the stranger in the cold,
the longing in the secret places
the fire that illumines
before it consumes.

I will not write
her consummation.
The end is within me, of course
but also beyond.
(I, too, contain multitudes.)

I will write her
free.

“Poiema” is the Greek word from which the English word “poem” descends. In Ephesians 2:10, the Apostle Paul writes, “We are God’s poiema.”

Grilled Corn & Avocado Salad

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Serves 6-8

This Fourth of July, I cooked almost entirely from the “At Home” section of the NYTimes. (OK, Eric grilled the ribs according to his own recipe.) The salads were a smash hit, but I tweaked the recipes a good bit. I’m recording the recipes here so I can remember later. And to share with you.

I liked this one because I could do most of the work ahead of time and just do the final assembly right before serving so it came to the table looking fresh. Grilling the corn seems like a lot of trouble. It worked for us because we were slow cooking the ribs all day, so we could toss the corn on the grill for a few minutes when we started the ribs. I think the smokey flavor is worth it, but if you’re not grilling anything else, you could get the char in a cast iron skillet on the stove.

Ingredients

  • 6 ears corn (about 3 pounds), shucked and silk removed
  • 1 jalapeño, stemmed and halved lengthwise
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • Kosher salt and black pepper
  • 4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled (about 3/4 cup)
  • ⅓ cup buttermilk
  • 1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest plus 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 small garlic clove, grated
  • 4 green onions, finely sliced
  • ¼ cup finely chopped fresh parsley
  • 2 avocados, diced

Instructions

Heat a grill or grill pan over medium-high. Brush corn and jalapeño with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Arrange on the grill and cook, turning occasionally, until corn kernels are browned in spots, 6 to 8 minutes, and the jalapeño is charred all over and tender, 9 to 10 minutes. Transfer vegetables to a cutting board and let cool.

Make the dressing: In a medium bowl, mash the feta into a coarse paste. Stir in buttermilk, lemon zest and juice and garlic, and black pepper. Taste and add salt if needed. Refrigerate until just before serving.

Once the corn and jalapeño are cool enough to handle, remove corn from cob into a large bowl. Chop jalapeño and add to bowl along with green onion and parsley. Set aside or refrigerate until ready to dress and serve.

When ready to serve, toss corn mixture with dressing, then add avocado. Garnish with additional parsley and green onion, if desired.

Adapted from “Grilled Corn and Avocado Salad” by Sue Li.

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