underside

isn’t it true

that the most beautiful part of something

(or someone)

often lies 

beneath

the showy surface

and were it not

for autumn’s wind

and a “letting go”

might never 

be seen

at all

"She had blue skin,

And so did he,

He kept it hid

And so did she.

They searched for blue

Their whole life through,

Then passed right by-

And never knew."

     -Everything On It by Shel Silverstein

bramble, (at the edge of the healing woods)

it’s messy

a myriad of thickets and

thorns

tangled

and mangled

like broken societies

disturbed and

disturbing

(the whole perturbed world

for that matter)

it's "all gone to hell in a hand basket"

my grandfather used to say

but did you know

that long ago

Someone

saw something

worth saving

“And they laid him in a manger because there was no room for him in the inn.”  Luke 2:7

When i reflect upon the tragedy in our country this past week (the Florida school shooting), i can’t help but think of the innocent child laid in a manger those many short years ago. Sent down to this broken world to make a way for us through the thorny thickets…… to the healing woods beyond.

a coyote, sent

I step out

onto the deck

this early

february morning

to clear my

thoughts

and leave go

the heaviness

that presses close

perhaps if i 

put it into a prayer

it will float away 

into the cold blue sky

but before i have time 

to utter a word

he is there

barely visible 

through the swaying 

pasture grass, golden

and somehow

his presence

takes hold of my

heart

and the heaviness

therein departs

as he disappears

to the waiting woods 

"Coyotes move within a landscape of attentiveness.  I have seen their eyes in the creosote bushes and among mesquite trees.  They have watched me.  And all the times that I saw no eyes, that I kept walking and never knew, there were still coyotes.  When I have seen them trot away, when I have stepped from the floorboard of my truck, leaned on the door, and watched them as they watched me over their shoulders, I have been aware for that moment of how much more there is.  Of how I have only seen an instant of a broad and rich life."

~Craig Childs, The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild

"Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear."  Is. 65:24

repair men

they came last week

while i was doing

a jigsaw puzzle

i could hear their voices

in my husbands office

something about

download speed

roku

and perhaps

a dozen other terms 

i have no use for

but i liked their voices

and i had the thought

that i would like to see

their faces

look into their eyes

and see the reflections of youth 

and soul

i would like to say

hi

but instead 

i picked up 

another puzzle piece

and before i knew it

they were

gone

and soon after

the puzzle

done

back in its box

on a shelf

in the basement

“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.”  C.S. Lewis

yesterday's walk

the raucous cry
of the crow
rang out

over the crackling
of cornstalks
underfoot

as my lungs
breathed in
the smoky air

and my heart
cried
holy
holy

“Walking is the perfect way of moving if you want to see into the life of things. It is the one way of freedom. If you go to a place on anything but your own feet you are taken there too fast, and miss a thousand delicate joys that were waiting for you by the wayside.” 

                           — Elizabeth Von Arnim

winter's brown

it’s nine degrees

when i step foot 

onto the driveway

and start my trek

down the gravel

road

this kind of cold

creates

quiet

and i know it will not be

birds today

that stir my understanding

half way through the cornfield

when all i hear are sounds

of my own footsteps

through frozen snow

and the whisk whisk

of my ski jacket

i notice 

at my feet

dying weeds

brown and fallen

like a straw rug, woven

still bearing 

golden tint

and when i look up again

i am filled with

the black brown

circling round

the woods are dark today

the barren trees

bear their branches

into a stone cold 

sky

"I prefer winter and fall--when you feel the bone structure of the landscape--the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it. The whole story doesn't show.  ~ Andrew Wyeth 

The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man.  ~Introduction to the book of Job

this tree

here she stands

one among millions

and here i stand

too

more than a million chances 

to one

of not seeing her 

and yet,

and

yet

While on the topic of chance……C.S. Lewis gives us good food for thought. :)

"In friendship, we think we have chosen our peers.  In reality a few years' difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another, the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting--any of these chances might have kept us apart.  But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking no chances.  A secret master of ceremonies has been at work.  Christ, who said of the disciples, "You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, " can truly say to every group of Christian friends, "You have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another."  The friendship is not a reward for our discriminating and good taste in finding one another out.  It is the instrument by which God reveals to each of us the beauties of others."     ~C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves