It's Lent

The great thing about poetry is that you can return to a poem time and time again, each time it will shift or something in you has shifted...or the way a word suddenly appears although it was always there. 

Listen again...anew...afresh to David Whyte read his poem...letting the melody of his sing-song voice minister to you.

Lend your voice again by reading aloud David Whyte's words:

Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone. As if life
were a progressive and cunning crime
with no witness to the tiny hidden
transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice. You must note
the way the soap dish enables you,
or the window latch grants you freedom.
Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.
The stairs are your mentor of things
to come, the doors have always been there
to frighten you and invite you,
and the tiny speaker in the phone
is your dream-ladder to divinity.
Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into the
conversation. The kettle is singing
even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots
have left their arrogant aloofness and
seen the good in you at last. All the birds
and creatures of the world are unutterably
themselves. Everything is waiting for you.

We live in a culture that loves individualism; worships at the altar of me, myself, and I; and yet you are you only because of relationships.  For better or worse. 

I am who I am because I was born in Iowa to two lower-middle class parents who worked long, hard hours.
I am who I am because I was born four years after my brother, a time gap that could never be fully closed.
I am who I am because of friendship that shaped me, sustained me, and still swirl within me.
I am who I am because I went to seminary, had teachers lecture about the good and not so great of being a pastor...
I am who I am because I met my wife...welcomed two children of our own...who every day now re-shape my life.
I am who I am because of the people on the church I serve.

Yes, I take responsibility and have accountability...relationships are not just for explaining away the rough edges or brokenness of our lives...relationships have a profound and powerful impact on our lives.

And Whyte is right...the great mistake of our life at such a time as this...is to act as if you are all alone.

Which reminds me of this wonderful anthem, "We are not alone"

May there be more than a trace of God's grace in your life that is tactile and tangible in these Lenten days.

Blessings ~~