Stand as if you see God,
as if you can feel and dream
the impossible interconnectedness of all things.
Of the roots twisting through the soil
touching beetles and bugs and bacteria
or how the apple swells on the branch
remembering the dark earth
that cradled the seed
and how the sun laid its hands of light
like kisses upon the tender white flowers of spring.
Stand as if you see God,
as if within your vulnerable and delightful chest
you hold the stories
that have been sung since the beginning
songs of grief and goodness,
of friend’s bodies broken by life’s shadows
and of how she turns to you
sometimes,
with simple kindness
and love unfolds across
the mysterious landscape of her face and your heart.
There is an ache there which never leaves
woven as it is
into the wonderful alloy
of which we all are made.
It aches for you to stand…
As if you see god,
as if the whole of creation was laid out before you
a rolling carpet of hills and mountains
oceans and turning galaxies
stars alight in the velvet plains of night,
the hush of darkening trees
kissing the stillness of another evening
while the earth turns quietly
endlessly.
The symphony of your days
filled with the music
of the everything
and the one great and tragic joke where
life becomes mundane
and we forget that the divine hides
in plain sight
laughing endlessly
while we stand…
As if we see god,
as if the life within us
is arising from the constant fountain
of freedom and creation
that is this legendary moment.
As if the very point where your tiny heart meets
whatever it meets
is the point of pure creativity
the point where the unfolding universe meets itself,
where life expresses and opens
your simple and flawed heart
cutting a bow wave into time and space
the tree of life opening through you
Inside you
Around you.
With you
As you..
Stand as if you see God
as if all the secrets you carry
hidden in the deep places
where even you do not know how to find them
are revealed and endlessly forgiven,
the twisted face of grief softening to tears,
compassion
Falling like blossom
turning the dark landscapes
of broken trees and dreams
into places of love and beauty.
Your weeping heart
at rest under the vast love
that gives birth to it all
day by day
moment by moment
breath by breath…
So stand as if you see god
for everything arises from mercy
even the merciless,
wonderful
life that has us in her hands
breaking us down to sand,
breaking our dreams and our ideas of ourselves
on the wheel of time.
Stand as if you see the impossibly vast weave of it all
how your simple life
is a part of a story that goes on and on
part of one great choir of voices
harsh as gulls and soft as wind in the reeds of the lake.
Stand as if you see creation
before your eyes
and know
know
that your belonging
is undeniable and complete,
that you will never deserve love
because love can never be earned
but is given in freedom with every breath
that you breathe
and that breathes you.
Stand as if you see God
and if you do not
know that god most surely sees you.
