Summer hit our house like a freight train when the kids got off the bus last Friday at 1:15.  It’s all good, but intense.  I’m still writing, but with preaching this Sunday and preparing for next week’s (!) writing retreat, I didn’t get my usual post out on Monday.  In lieu of anything new, I’m sharing this poem that first arrived in June 2014. Enjoy! Also, scroll down for a preview of some of the paintings I’ve been working on this spring. 

How It Has Always Been

The vicar general, shying away from ‘paganism’ hangs back and sits under a tree reading the guidebook.  I am able to approach the Buddhas barefoot and undisturbed, my feet in wet grass, wet sand. – Thomas Merton describing his visit to the sleeping Budhas in “The Asian Journal”

My son comes walking to me, barefoot, 

across the wet summer grass.
The morning light lays soft around him  

and in that moment I see how it is,

how every child is a contemplative, 

exposed in every way to the Now.  

“This is what you must become,” Jesus whispers 

and I see now how it has always been, God 

and his children, barefoot, the morning grass 

cool and wet beneath their feet.

* I stopped by Infinity Graphics today to get some prints of recent paintings. These bright beauties (the picture is a little dark) will soon be available to purchase as small wooden block paintings. Stay tuned.