It's Easy to Get Lost

It’s Easy to Get Lost

(“Christ says ‘Yes’ to all of God’s promises. That’s why we have Christ to say ‘Amen’ for us to the glory of God.” 2 Corinthians 1:20)

It’s easy to get lost when you let your mind wander
where the forest obscures the horizon. The jazz station
plays with time signatures all day long.

You might start at the entrance, a graveled parking lot
with a semi-cab at one end and an suv at the other;
one of their radios is gurgling the blues.
It might make you wonder why the middle of the day
is denser than the beginning.

You follow the arcing trail, a wide white sidewalk
with bemudded bicycle tracks left over from yesterday
afternoon. All too soon the earth is wet as you
merge with the trees, bluebonnets and sparrows.

You take a breath, reminding yourself you missed half
the view; your mind had narrowed, enclosed all the
thoughts from the previous year as they bounded about
your brain
like clothing in the washing machine. Like
tennis shoes in the dryer.

Mindful of the static that buzzed across your consciousness,
you choose the mud and rocks instead, the sky graying
overhead,
and a lone butterfly gliding toward
the sunflower garden that has not bloomed yet
this season. (It was likely an angel, you felt the
magic of its wings.)

A mere quarter-hour in and you’ve lost the beginning,
which you don’t mind,
you’ve been here before; will visit again. There
are some days that even a best friend would
be an intrusion.

Another five minutes and you’ve lost the ending.

You know where the pond is, but you have lost your bearings;
halfway around it and you would be nearing the beginning.
But overclouded by trees the trail is foggy green, winding through
cones and around the cacti hidden like silver
deep in the grass.

The sun is out, but it is obscure. The wind is light, and will not
expire until the moon and stars drip dew upon the meadow again.
You had nowhere to go, and with no thoughts in your mind
you unwind the clock that clanked away each minute you wasted.

You had thought for nearly all your life that places like this
were perfect for prayer. But duty always beckoned before you
set one foot upon the sod.

This time you’re lost and exactly where you are supposed to be.