Monthly Archives: October 2015
reasons
you give reasons to be peaceful
you are light to pierce the shade
you take time to show affection
you cause doubts and fears to fade
in the storms you are like sunshine
in the noise a still small voice
in the bitter wind a haven
in the swirling tide a choice
excerpt from “reasons”
Reasons to be peaceful can feel few and far between.
It has always been so.
Despite what is sometimes said, these days are no more difficult than those which came before (neither are they any less beautiful).
Still, reasons can feel few.
Too much hurry, too little tenderness.
Too much running, too little shelter.
But then we hear it, feel it, hold it for all it is worth.
The word that stills us and steals our anxiety.
The touch that soothes us and quiets our soul.
The mystery is that sometimes we are for other people that reassuring word, that gentle touch, even when we do not realise it.
Bringing point and purpose and, yes, perhaps even beauty to these days.
never lost
you are not so unworthy
as you presume you are
as if beyond some pale hue
through travelling too far
down destruction’s twisting road
with no chance of return
the only fate facing you
regret’s unyielding burn
to err is all too human
and no one is unstained
saints are few and far from clean
with moral slips restrained
forgiveness said to be divine
but needs that we receive:
accepting all is not lost
the start of our reprieve
excerpt from “never lost”
How many times am I to forgive my brother? The question once put to an itinerant teacher. Six or seven maybe? Would that be enough? Surely any more than that would just be foolish!
Seven times seventy, was the teacher’s response. In other words, forgive however many times it is needed. You cannot put a number on forgiveness.
It can be hard to forgive other people.
Harder still to forgive ourselves.
We may have become quietly adept in concealing them from others, but we cannot hide from ourselves the endless repetition of mistakes and misfired chances to change.
How many times am I to forgive myself? The question we fear to ask, not realising the same answer applies.
As many times as needed.
As many times as needed.
Live gently. Quit counting. Start accepting.
We are never forever lost.
stay
take this time we share
for all that it is worth
unreasoned joy a gift
and whisper of a birth
stay for a while
be with me now
find your lost smile
some day, somehow
excerpt from “stay”
Platitudes and easy answers: the way of the world.
Platitudes and easy answers: the way of denial.
After a death: he had a good innings, as if the pain of loss can somehow be refused.
In the face of tragedy: there is reason for everything, as if sorrow can be neatly folded and tidied away.
Sometimes, though, there are no words to soothe.
Sometimes words simply wound and frustrate.
Sometimes all that is left to say is in the silence.
And in the being with, lost smiles are found.