Day 27 - baby makes 5

i forget to sign up for the vigil yet again. 
(see vigil schedule HERE)
We arrive and see two women.  They're carrying a sing that reads: "It stops a beating heart". 

When Harold arrives, we make 5.  We hear that there has already been trouble earlier on in the day because 4 adults were accompanied by a tiny baby - and baby made 5. The police were called and the people who had come to pray, realizing the error, moved into the field (where we are allowed to pray if the sidewalk already has 4 people on it). 

i pass my sign on to my friend (we are not allowed to carry signs in the park), and make my way across the green grass to pass the power poles that mark the line we are not allowed to cross. 

So many rules. 

This is the view from the power poles in the park.  God is not bound by a court injunction - and He hears me - whether i am on the street corner, or in a field where no one can see me. 

We juggle those coming and those going.  We try to be careful - to respect the injunction that prevents us from speaking out.   When we are down to four again, i stand on the sidewalk...  i pray aloud... After all these months, i find i am no longer self-conscious of pedestrians and people watching - i look up at the blue-grey clouds and beg for this injustice to end. 
Silent again... bereft of words, my friend begins to pray. 

Her warm voice floats over the chill in the air and i look across the street to the couple standing at the door.  If they look at me, i promise myself, i will wave my sign in the air, O God, let them see me and know my heart.  A car drives past and the driver holds his middle finger out the window and glares at me.  My eyes flit back to the couple standing and stamping their feet in the cold at that door.  Still my friend, eyes closed, continues to petition the Father.  The door must be coded - and finally it opens to let in the tiny family that never once turns their heads in my direction - and the door closes behind them.