Lifening

Hey Buddy,
I hope you are well. Just wanted to let you know today how much I have missed you this week.

I am well, alive, grateful, and surrounded by love and good things in the midst of my own struggles to find the way through these days and the mess that my insides can sometimes be.

I cannot count the number of times this week that I have picked up my phone or started to hit the speed dial in the car to call your cell, and see what was on your mind, what is in your heart, or ask if you had time for coffee or a lunch.

I find myself wondering about the details of your day, and the thoughts and feelings you are experiencing, what games you are playing with the boys, and what has your and Michele's attention today.

This morning as I have thought this and typed this between patients, I have been listening to the "Sending + Blessing" service for Rob and Kristen Bell recorded at Mars Hill last Sunday. One of the elders read a poem called "Start Close In" by (surprise, surprise) David Whyte.

START CLOSE IN

Start close in,
don't take the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step you don't want to take.

Start with
the ground
you know,
the pale ground
beneath your feet,
your own
way of starting
the conversation.

Start with your own
question,
give up on other
people's questions,
don't let them
smother something
simple.

To find
another's voice
follow
your own voice,
wait until
that voice
becomes a
private ear
listening
to another.

Start right now
take a small step
you can call your own
don't follow
someone else's
heroics, be humble
and focused,
start close in,
don't mistake
that other
for your own.

Start close in,
don't take the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step you don't want to take.

~ David Whyte ~


You, Michele, and your boys are in my heart (and my families' hearts) and our prayers.

I pray you are carried today.



This is Lifening, Track 8, on Fallen Empires.