Prompt: Psalm 42 Echo

Photo by Bonnie Kittle @bonniekdesign

~ BE STILL ~

As a deer looks for flowing streams

so my soul reaches out to you, O Godde

cries out to behold the face of living Godde

my soul turns to you, my ever present help

yet surrounded, held by your love as in a womb

I’m apt to miss the flow ready to quench my thirst

- prone to let the noise of my loud panicked cries

drown out the object of my search: your touch

your quiet answer breathing in my heart

the piercing of my blind spots

shading your ever present

flood of love from view

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When shall I come to know your breath again

dear Godde? Your familiar presence holding me?

As a fawn resting by the stream, I know, and

am reminded; I’ve been swimming in your

living waters all along. Safely held

Here I will live and breath and

listen for your Wisdom with

hope and a thanksgiving

stirring in my heart

Thanks be to Godde

JoMae

6/16/19

The Psalmist goes on to speak of sorrow, fear, wounds and feeling downcast -  forgotten by God, then recalls and repeats:  “Hope in God; for I shall again praise…”  That hope is reinforced by remembering moments when God was not distant. When God’s face had been more clear.  

Sympathy cards often wish the recipient many happy memories to comfort you.  At some point I realized that warm memories of the past not only sooth and comfort, but can also become the underpinnings for future joy. After loss, life is largely ‘before’ and ‘after’.  Memories, and all one has learned from them - from the past - provide the building blocks for what lies ahead. Each chapter of our lives is built on or against the one before. Life goes on. In deep mourning, one might not even want it to go on. Yet it does. 

At first we stand disoriented with one foot in the past, one unwillingly pulled ahead. Finally, when we reluctantly accept that the old chapter is closed and the new is inevitable, we do well to put both feet into it. Start building with every tool and memory we’ve known before.  Let each joy and sorrow be a teaching block. Turn any hobby and small skill into a gift to share in making a new friend, in finding a new purpose for this next chapter.  

May we allow past memories to serve as a firm anchor for life ahead, let them be a gift of hope as we create new joy and find the strength to build bright futures, Godde helping us.  -JoMae 

Today's Prompt: My echo of  Psalm 42