This time: A prayer of intention

This time
I won't be looking at my feet
or even at the road ahead.
This time
I'll keep my eyes
on the skies --
not just the thunderclouds in the distance,
but the light,
and the promise that this bridge
will carry my weight
and lead me to the other side;
that more bridges are being built
even as I step forward;
that even if this one fails
I'll still be able to cross;
still be able to find my way.

And as I walk,
I'll bless the many hands
that help to bring me home
to You.


* * *

The Color of Now

In our striving
in our struggling
in our climbing
and our reaching
we seem to find ourselves
even farther from
Your Truth.

Help us to empty ourselves
of this need to be above,
unique,
special.
Help us release the need to climb
and stand here firmly on the ground,
touching in to what needs our attention right here,
into what inside is longing to be born.
Lead us into the color of now,
that we might find you again
waiting patiently for us
exactly here,
precisely now.


* * *

This path we walk

This path we walk --
the one You've given us,
lifted above the swamp of possibilities --
has some bends
we cannot understand:
what is it you know
that is so much less obvious to us?
And what, in us,
is tempted to step off
into the muck and mire?

One single great intention
appears to be more than enough
to carry us through
and yet we hesitate to embark.
Confused by the twists and turns,
we find ourselves looking back
and wondering:
Could there be some other, easier way;
a path WE could control,
or where the destination might be more obvious?


* * *

This flame we are

This flame we are,
this flaring out of life and love,
this flash of creativity -- or pain --
do not assume this is illumination.

However beautiful
this burst of brightness;
however intense her reflection of the Son,
her petals -- ours --
inevitably fade
and fall,
brown,
unheeded to the ground
to nourish those whose seasons are yet to come.

This radiant blaze
is but a blush,
fueled by that incandescent light
that shimmers for eternity
on the altar of each Heart --
and each Heart's One.


* * *

A Mother's Lament

So many needs
I cannot assuage,
so many battles
I cannot wage,
so many hearts
I can't un-break,
so many promises
I can't un-make:
so many problems
that I alone can't solve.

So much peace
that goes unfound,
so many knots
that come unbound,
so many betrayals
I can't undo...
so many hopes
I can't make come true:
so many wounds
that I alone can't heal.


* * *

Dancing into the mystery

There is a jungle
deep inside,
a tangled web
of darkened veins,
empurpled flowers,
laced with growth and green,
all lush and lively and disordered,
like a woman rising
flushed and rosy
from her bed
hair disheveled
from a lover's touch.

Meet me there,
O Holy One;
let us dance into the mystery
and drink together in the dark
from the spring that feeds
my green and wanton soul.


* * *

Where One meets Other

There is a path
at the far edge of the harbor,
and a place where the tide
flows into the land,
then washes the stones
back out to the sea.
Let me be that bridge,
O Holy One,
and stand forever at the mouth
where One meets Other
and both flow into each;
let me be the lamp
that lights the path when darkness falls
and helps the weary traveler safely home.


* * *