Day Forty

And now we have arrived
I see the start before me
And soon the gun goes off
The whirlwind comes for me.

Day Thirty-Nine

The days that hold my dread
Are outnumbered by the lonely gale
and its many companions waiting always
ready to devour joy.

But I will fight for peace
and lay my burden down
and trust in Jesus Christ
Though I become as dust.

Let the longest wastes
Through which my soul must pass
Welcome me with lonely arms
Until I leave them past.

Day Thirty-Eight

Long is the winter
Here in the wastes
Long is the wait
For gentle warming spring
All that molds us
Has its own bite
And sometimes even
Its own glow.

Day Thirty-Seven

Wars can be long
Especially with the self
hope only in what is true.

Day Thirty-Six

Sometimes avoiding something takes more than you realize
in energy
and things fall by the wayside
that once grew vibrant
in your life
And you think
that this is the last thing you need
but lions have sharp claws
and scales don’t come off easy.

Day Thirty-Five

Hard blows the soul’s cold wind
That frees the captive heart
and many things may still be lost
to free the whole in time.

Day Thirty-Three

I love the way the sun breaks free of the night
and all the earth is changed–
even if only for a day.

Day Thirty-Two

Sometimes a little is harder than none
and sometimes a weaning is hard to do
And sometimes the cold will kill you dead
And birds fly high away.

Sipping my coffee I remember this:
In days gone by you held back the storm
and other days you plunged me into the icy waters with your own hand
where I thought I would die… but did not.

A heart is a hard thing to tame
Perhaps this is why you must give new ones
and perhaps this is why
we must be born again.

Day Thirty-One

Sleep does not often come to the rescue.
Curtains fall
and so do dreams.

Day Thirty

Physical fatigue
My sometimes welcome friend
Has followed me down from in the hills
Where I ran and ran.