I am held

By arms much stronger than mine.

Arms that can hold the weight of all I carry

So I can rest.

 

Here I rest for real.

Here I breathe in deep.

 

The air is moist and cool,

Like breathing in a rainforest.

The green is intoxicating.

It distracts me constantly;

The sheer profusion.

 

 

 

Ferns thickly populate along the creek,

Insinuating mysterious goings on

Of the fairy people

Beneath their lacey canopies.

 

 

Here water runs eternally,

As it falls like a shower,

As it mists like a kettle,

As it sweeps down the gutters,

And tumbles over the edges,

And pools amongst the skunk cabbages.

 

 

And I can’t help but come

And lap it up

With my eyes

And my soul.

Everyone else stays away,

Deterred by the constant damp,

Which means I have it

All to myself.

 

This forest like a sponge,

Holding in all that wet,

In heavy pockets of moss,

Like stuffing,

Lining logs and branches,

Trailing aimless up tree trunks

Sprouting newborn ferns,

Curling out slow and tender.

 

 

 

And the wet can enter me,

My hands, my face, my hair,

It washes my eyes

And slips smooth off my jacket.

And I love it so

That it soaks into my heart,

Till it’s full

Some days.

 

Other days come.

The other days when the gray goes on

And on,

And on,

And the wet creeps under my skin,

Soaks inside, cold,

And I’m weighed down,

down

With the wet.

 

 

 

And nothing inside wants to sing,

Nothing inside wants to see

The beauty round me,

The green as grace,

The wet as new birth.

 

 

So all I see is the endless grey,

The constant to-do lists,

The heavy impossibilities

Looming.

 

 

The forest soaks me in,

Me and all the pressure

I carry with me,

Dripping off me.

And I make myself sing,

I make myself see,

More than mud,

More than cold,

More than grey,

More than me.

 

In the crook of two trees

Melded together by Time,

I find my Center.

Amongst the cool,

Always wetness of it,

This sponge-like green,

This eternal rain-

Embrace.

 

I am held

By arms much stronger than mine.

Arms that can hold the weight of all I carry

So I can rest.

 

 

“I gotta keep singing,

I gotta keep praising Your name,

Cause you’re the One Whose keeping my heart beating.

I gotta keep singing,

I gotta keep praising Your name,

Cause that’s the only way that I find meaning.

 

 

Can I climb up in Your lap,

I don’t want to leave.

Jesus, sing over me,”

~Keep Singing ~ MercyMe

 

 

 

First Photo courtesy of Annie Kotowicz