AFC082407 Poems to My Peace (Continued)
IX.
I looked out my window
and asked someone:
“Where is Beauty?”
The rain answered
and the rainbow
filled
the pigeon-wing sky
like a polite closing
to a beautiful letter.
I looked between my self
and asked my soul:
“Where is God?”
The cedar answered
when patiently he
pointed
everywhere at once —
above, below, and in between.
God bless the Everywhere Tree.
I looked inside my home
and asked anyone:
“Where is Peace?”
A Voice answered
and she came to me,
quietly,
singing a song,
lulling the stars to sleep
in lukewarm clarity.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
This is the last of the original series. Next week I’ll have a little blurb on the background for I-IX. This one, number nine, still baffles me once in a while, and that always surprises me. Here I am looking for Beauty, looking for God, looking for Peace. I look for Beauty outside of me and the beauty I see is rain and a rainbow, a storm and the resolution of the storm, life-giving water and the covenant of Hope. The Beauty is internalized as my understanding of these things grows.
When I look at the internal me, I see the self I am, the self I intend to be, and the self I am created to be. I see the differences. If I contemplate only on the differences, there is no unity, no integration of my soul; without that integration, I fritter away my life looking to find my self. It is not my self that I need to find, that I want to find; I am seeking God and He is not between my self. He is, like the cedar, above, below, and in-between. His roots are deep within His creation, his branches are high above everything, and His trunk connects root and bough in-between. I am created in His image. My roots are deep in Him, my boughs are spread in Him, my trunk is sustained in Him. Because He is eternal and omnipresent, I can be with Him in any time and in any place because He is always with me there.
My home, the place where my self lives, is the place where I have known Peace. If you think back to section IV, there was this:
I know the same of her.
It is a secret name
written on the hearthstone
in the only house
where I’ve never been alone.
The hearthstone is my center, the focus of my living, and I have never been alone in that house. In fact, that house has always been crowded with everyone I have ever loved, everyone who has ever loved me, and – like an enigmatic mystery – anyone who has ever loved them. How? Why?
God knows, but such Wisdom is beyond me. A Voice answers, a song is heard, Peace enters in, and all Creation comes to balance – not to hot and not too cold, not too fast and not too slow, not too soon and not too late, simply just right which is All Righteousness.
Peace be with you.
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service.
Chick
Pay as if the future of the world depends on it – for indeed it does!
AFC082407 Poems to My Peace (Continued)
IX.
I looked out my window
and asked someone:
“Where is Beauty?”
The rain answered
and the rainbow
filled
the pigeon-wing sky
like a polite closing
to a beautiful letter.
I looked between my self
and asked my soul:
“Where is God?”
The cedar answered
when patiently he
pointed
everywhere at once —
above, below, and in between.
God bless the Everywhere Tree.
I looked inside my home
and asked anyone:
“Where is Peace?”
A Voice answered
and she came to me,
quietly,
singing a song,
lulling the stars to sleep
in lukewarm clarity.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
This is the last of the original series. Next week I’ll have a little blurb on the background for I-IX. This one, number nine, still baffles me once in a while, and that always surprises me. Here I am looking for Beauty, looking for God, looking for Peace. I look for Beauty outside of me and the beauty I see is rain and a rainbow, a storm and the resolution of the storm, life-giving water and the covenant of Hope. The Beauty is internalized as my understanding of these things grows.
When I look at the internal me, I see the self I am, the self I intend to be, and the self I am created to be. I see the differences. If I contemplate only on the differences, there is no unity, no integration of my soul; without that integration, I fritter away my life looking to find my self. It is not my self that I need to find, that I want to find; I am seeking God and He is not between my self. He is, like the cedar, above, below, and in-between. His roots are deep within His creation, his branches are high above everything, and His trunk connects root and bough in-between. I am created in His image. My roots are deep in Him, my boughs are spread in Him, my trunk is sustained in Him. Because He is eternal and omnipresent, I can be with Him in any time and in any place because He is always with me there.
My home, the place where my self lives, is the place where I have known Peace. If you think back to section IV, there was this:
I know the same of her.
It is a secret name
written on the hearthstone
in the only house
where I’ve never been alone.
The hearthstone is my center, the focus of my living, and I have never been alone in that house. In fact, that house has always been crowded with everyone I have ever loved, everyone who has ever loved me, and – like an enigmatic mystery – anyone who has ever loved them. How? Why?
God knows, but such Wisdom is beyond me. A Voice answers, a song is heard, Peace enters in, and all Creation comes to balance – not to hot and not too cold, not too fast and not too slow, not too soon and not too late, simply just right which is All Righteousness.
Peace be with you.
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service.
Chick
Pay as if the future of the world depends on it – for indeed it does!
About Chick Todd
American Roman Catholic reared as a "Baptiterian" in Denver Colorado. Now living on Kauaʻi. USAF Vet. Married for over 50 years. Scripture study has been my passion ever since my first "Bible talk" at age 6 in VBS.
