What's next

I am not exactly sure

What’s next,

Even less

What may come

After that.

The phone rings

This morning

Reminds me about lunch.

Oh yes

Lunch usually comes

After breakfast.

I get up

Into this spinny day

To start the morning routine.

Sometimes it helps

Simply

To begin.

Evidence

Windows open, cat sleeping in the sun, cardinal singing his heart out, I wonder what evidence I will draw from today. I laugh at all the evidence-based therapy skills I have learned. I know they look different applied in my particular office.

Each one of us

Has her own interpretation

Of what she has learned.

We think

We apply it

Purely.

There is no such thing

As pure

Only

Well-intentioned

Maybe

Recognizable.

It’s a secret,

A not-so-well-kept secret:

The evidence is important

To be sure

But in its purity,

It’s only

Where we begin.

I want people to learn

It's still amazing to me how often clients come in for my help with something I often struggle with myself. I hope it remains amazing.

I want people to learn

What I myself often

Cannot do

Cannot see

Cannot hear.

I want people to learn these things

So I myself

Might

Begin again

To learn the same.

Crises

So many crises... some of them mine. Even last night's dreams had me flowing from crisis to crisis.  I am grateful for coffee and breathing and beginning again.

It is only Tuesday

Ten or twenty crises

Have arisen,

Been vanquished

This week alone.

Who knows what tomorrow

Will bring?

I am so grateful

That the dreams last night

Were only dreams.

I sit in recovery

Coffee in hand

I marvel at the fact

I am alive.

I breathe in,

Exhale,

Begin again.

O Come Thou Wisdom

We have missed church the last two Sundays, despite Advent being my very favorite season, with its palpable waiting.  I have the annual Advent head cold.  It still comes, even with no pine in the house or church responsibilities.  Today Advent kicks up a notch.  Today is the right time to begin singing O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.  Today's denoted verse is Wisdom.  A good way to begin the countdown.

Today we begin

The final waiting period

For all that is

To come.

We wait for Wisdom

From on High,

Who orderest all things mightily.

O come

We wait for you,

One day at a time.

O come

We wait for you

With words mined

From Scripture.

O come

We wait for Wisdom

To arrive,

Show us the way.

We wait in this final countdown

Of the Advent calendar.

O come

Wisdom

Come.

Today we begin

Our final

Waiting.

Wisdom is a good way

To begin.