The poem below was written by a blog reader of mine who is a friend from my local clergy association. A spiritual psychotherapist, Fred keeps a poetry blog that I think my readers might enjoy. Check it out!

This Much I Know

I have been trying God’s patience
For over sixty years….
Assuming there is a God
That cares or listens.

Sometimes I sit in silence—
Empty room filled with Presence,
Opening blue “eye” behind the mind
To discern what God is up to….

Sometimes alongside my suffering
I sense an endless laughter.
Another time I open inner heart,
Hear the groaning of the universe.

All I know is everything I have
Will have to be surrendered.
Nothing lasts, including me;
Including those I hold close in love.

Yet nothing disappears,
Merely transformed in ways
My tiny mind cannot begin to grasp.
And so I live my life in trust….

I am in transit, evolving every day,
Praying my way in hope
That Love is real and really here,
Within, outside and all surrounding.

And I accept there is no “answer”
But the answer of Compassion
Sensed within an open heart—
Tenuous, pulsing, alive but never able to grasp
With the certainty my mind would like.

So one day I cry; another day I laugh.
I do my best to listen to everyone
Who comes as teacher, friend, enemy
To offer what they hold within their hearts.

There is so much to discover….
Learn within a simple grain of sand,
If I but stop, pause to see and hear
Miracles surround my feet.

by Fred Turpin
September 9, 2011