I’m not familiar with all the little living things
growing at the edge of our yard by the woods.
There are wildflowers, and also invasive plants.
So I have to pay attention as new green leaves sprout up:
is this a flower I want or a weed I don’t?
I have to learn to distinguish the shoots of one from another.
Sometimes I learn to recognize even the littlest tips
of favored plants or dreaded ones.
Sometimes I have to wait and watch, and see what flowers.
I watch my inner garden
for even the smallest green fingers, to recognize
the shoots of hurt, or fear, or mercy,
or courage, or rage, or grief,
especially grief, and its unexpected flowering.
I watch soil that harbors more than I know or understand.
I watch and see what God is doing.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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