Wilderness – A Thread You Follow

Walden Pond

Walden Pond still lies 
in the midst of the wilderness
for all those seeking
to be by themselves.
Daydreams are welcome.
Please leave all dogmas behind
and lean into important matters
with a heartfelt embrace.
Remember that rigidity 
resists the creative urge
of the world to become new.
Greet any adventure that makes
the distant things become 
less remote in your sight.
You will find any experiment of joy
justification enough
for your next breath.

To Be Delivered

Rejoice!
Water still drips from rock
in the middle of the wilderness.
The illusion of dryness will dry up
once you learn to see Moses
still leading people
to the Promised Land.
Even you can walk for a long time
and keep up with all who seek
to reconcile themselves
with deliverance from bondage
and the way water parts
for those who dare to be delivered.

A Drink of the Wilderness

How often do we assume
things will take care of themselves
only to find what we had been hoping for
lying out back in the dumpster?
And then a teacher never met before
steps through the narrow door
of our very lives and introduces herself
with intimacies and challenges
taking our breath away to some other land.
We try to explain the essence
turning us into the separate and excluded.
We look for the reconciliation including
oneness without becoming sameness.
We open our mouths to speak in parables
finding that once again we can drink
abundantly from the deep wilderness.

Into the Wilderness

Continue to look through the Complacency
created by Ache-Covering Consumerism and
Beyond the Announcements that offer Delights 
for All Ages while the Big Imperative roots
around in commercial Offerings caught
between the First Half of Life and the Last Step
into the Tomb where all wait in Hope
for some Miracle to motivate Modern Man
to leave Nothing below and Go willingly
into the Wilderness.

And more…

I wondered, "Have we ever considered 
following the Hebrews into the Wilderness?"

Not missing a moment, she responded,
"Not until we are promised something
mesmerizing and unique."

I remembered a recent lunch.
"Didn't you say those same two words
to describe the pizza we shared 
the other day not long ago?"

She replied, "I guess I am on a roll.
Though I have been thinking about
adding welcoming and wonderful
to my descriptive repertoire."

I smiled and, with my tongue in my cheek,
said, "That would be a wonderful
and welcome change."

Pretending to be upset, she replied,
"Go ahead and try to bear my burden.
You will find that a new creation
truly is everything."  Smiling, she added,
"And more."