The Place

The Place

The surprise of hearing my own voice

like seeing slivers of light filtered between the trees

The words are whispered which I could have missed

Words of encouragement, a push

My eyes are closed, my attention sharpened

I am resting a bit after walking long

My breathing is trying to catch up with my steps

In trying to reach my goal I struggle

There are benches, handrails, sources of spring water

I am vulnerable but not feeble.

I am not alone, or helpless

Though night is approaching I am not lost.

Is it the wind or spirit descends from above the trees

A voice telling me a place in eternity

The place where I am going.

 

Today like yesterday

 

It rained yesterday.

Rained again today.

We are only 54 percent in rainfall for the year.

I walked to the river on most days.

Today I did not.

Calamities make days unreal.

In our isolation let’s expand our relationship

You are not alone

We are in this together

We cry together. We pray together

Let’s join our shoulders together

Love will prevail.

Struggle

A glass of wine and rain on a March afternoon

She says she just visited Morocco

Ate a lot of foods served in tagines.

 

I struggle to know

The imperfections of a place

To find a solution, an honest quest

Some look familiar, others look relevant

A little twist, a little nudge can move small stones

Inspiring but not enough to tackle boulders

Unheroic simplicity to a balanced life.

Even busy exhausting life

Can point to God

With his never absent mercy and love.

To seek God is not for a day or a month

It’s not a pilgrimage

It’s a lifelong task, I will find in him

“The ultimate reasons for things.”

Sometimes we feel dead in our faith

Sometimes we feel invigorated like spring

The desert of lent is not devoid of life

“Rise, do not be afraid.”

A new time

 

It’s Lent

A new time to bring us back to God

Forgotten often during busy hours of work

Or diverted in digital temptations

Come in silence. Sit still.

Quiet the tumult of your heart,

A few minutes of rest.

A time to affirm who you are.

Remember who will be tempted afterwards.

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the mountain’s affection for the sunflower field

radical, abstract, abundant

folding laundry, looking at each other’s eyes

surrender

You are a stranger in the stream

who walked away from a mountain trail

looking for a waterfall

a translation of the inevitable

modest steps lost in the tributaries

understanding that we are the ones

who are often distracted.

Let deer roam your mind

forest of imagination

when its head dips in the stream

let your heart be surprised

learn “to love things

as no one thought to love them”

you will arrive without knowing,

a raindrop surrendering to the sea,

the immensity of the unsayable.