reflection

In my many travels,
I have often sat down at the tables
of great families of mountains,
hosts that brought me in
and taught me treasured lessons.

First, a grandmother painted white,
who in summertime began to melt-
put on a dress of pounding waterfalls
that flowed down past her featherweight footfall.
I wish to be as generous as she-
holding nothing back from the world,
my family.

Next, her son, a father standing tall.
At first I did not see him,
or hear his quiet call.
I traveled fearful in the night,
oblivious in the low light
to his kind presence overhead,
a helmet to protect my head.
I wish to serve as silent and as steadfast
as I found him the next morning,
making breakfast.

And then I met his wife
in a wreath of clouds,
cradling in the mist
a sleeping child.
Softly tending to his cry,
her lungs swelled with a lullaby
that delicate, danced on the wind
and lightly floating, filled my mind.
I wish to give as selflessly as she,
to water with my love
another's dreams.

Later on, I met that child,
a playful peak
poking at his sister, sky,
with sprightly technique.
He had his grandmother's snowy grace,
his towering father's stony face,
and his mother's wild imagination,
though not quite yet their elevation.
We climbed through rocks, sank into snow,
and made a slide out of the slope.
I wish to reflect as unmistakably as he
the image of the One
who created me.

-

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made."
Psalm 139:14