They return

I am a mother and a wife and a priest and a therapist, among many other things. I watch people come and go. I come and go. So much happens in the unseen places. Every now and then someone returns and I glimpse the work that's happened in between... unseen.

So much happens

Unseen

Then they return

Only

To leave again.

Pause

It does get easier with time.  My brain takes at least an hour or two before it seizes.  I have learned when I must take it easy.  Pause.  I am gone for the seizure, but there are reminders left behind.  The same questions arise from those who perhaps haven't asked them before: Do they know what causes them? they ask.  I have epilepsy, I say.  

It gives pause:

The coming to

The waking up

The bit tongue

A reminder I have left

And returned.

Pause.

Almost

A re-set button.

Still

I never return

To square one.

I’m not sure anyone

Ever returns

To square one.

Pause.

Here it is again.

Simple Gifts

Simple Gifts (the song) runs through my head today.  I am not at church, being on another driving hiatus.  I will go to church tonight for the Ash Wednesday liturgy to mark the beginning of Lent. Already I feel the changes, the turning and returning, the bowing and bending unlike anything I remember from before.  I think my Lenten journey has been marked out for me.  All that matters is placing one foot in front of the other.  A simple dance.  A simple gift.

I am home bowing and bending

I watch the way life

Has turned

And turned again.

Tonight I will be reminded

I am dust,

To dust I will return.

This is the gift

For today.

A simple gift.

It is one gift

Of oh so many.

Slowly the swing returns

I have been away from this place for 2-1/2 weeks.  The space feels good.  It welcomes me back like I*d never left.  I wait for a client who may not show.  All this means is that my beloved and I will go backsplash shopping sooner rather than later.

Slowly the swing returns.

The kitchen makes its way

Into a semblance

Of order.

We will look at more backsplash possibilities

This afternoon

Between clients.

The nursery school

Outside my door

Has left for the day.

The afternoon nursery school

Down the hall

Offers children*s voices

At a distance.

Slowly the swing returns.

I wait for client number one.

I give it fifty/fifty

Whether she will come.

Slowly

Slowly the swing returns.