You must read this book

Thank you, Martha Durham, for recommending Nora Gallagher's Moonlight Sonata at the Mayo Clinic.  I finished it on Monday, recommended it to a client yesterday, and dreamed about it last night.

You must read this book

She said

I know you will understand.

So I did

Though I got stuck

In chapter one

On two stated facts

Which were not true,

Stuck for three days

Until I decided it was time

To move on

To chapter two,

And get with the story.

This morning I dreamed

I went to the Mayo Clinic

They allowed patients

To fly small planes

While they awaited

Test results.

You must read this book

She said.

I did.

I sat with a client yesterday

You might

Want to read this book

I said

Watch out for the two wrong statements

At the beginning.

The rest

Is true to life.

Truth has that particular ring

I have a singing bowl my children gave me a few years ago.  It is a beautiful thing.  When I do it well, the ringing continues long after I have stopped circling the edge with the wooden mallet.  Today I think about Nathanael recognizing Jesus for who He is with such little evidence.  Today I also think about Martin Luther King, Jr., another singing bowl.  His reverberations continue as well, though I believe he would say he was echoing Jesus, as we are all called to do.

Like the singing bowl,

Truth has a particular ring,

Reverberations long after

The circles have stopped.

Nathanael heard truth

From Jesus;

The singing bowl

That was Jesus.

You are a man in whom there is no guile

Jesus said.

I saw you under the fig tree

He said.

Nathanael heard the truth.

It had nothing to do with figs.

It had everything to do

With Jesus.

Nathanael heard Jesus

Clearly.

Truth has that particular ring.

When we hear it

We are called to name it

For what it is.

We are called to be part

Of the reverberations

Long after

The circles have stopped.

Like Nathanael:

He heard

He spoke.

Truth has that particular ring.

Truth

I*ve had a few of these moments recently.  The moments when I hear what I*m saying and realize the truth in it.  I also realize that I need to hear it, whatever it is, more than the other person.  Once it*s out there, it will most often not allow itself to be put down for a nap, either.

Sometimes I hear the Truth

Come out of my mouth.

Often I did not it know it was alive there

Inside my head

Inside my heart.

I realize those words that land

Between us

Are for me as much

As for you.

Maybe more for me.

Truth sits, stands,

Sometimes shivers there:

Naked Unclothed Truth.

Before I get a blanket around it,

Put it to bed

Out of sight,

It streaks out of the room.

It screams like a banshee.

It simply will not be contained

Again.