At the ruins of the Seven Churches Inishmore
Pick a crevice,
a homey gap
between stones
and make it
your own.
Grow a life here
from wind
rain
and the memories of ancients
embedded in limestone.
The bees will use you
for their sweet honey.
The rock will soften under
your touch.
You will draw moisture from fog
and hold it.
Your presence
will build soil.
This is all we have
in this life
all we own:
a flowering
an opening
a gap between stones
for tiny tender roots.
by Linda Buckmaster
A tender one, touching on the preciousness and fragility of our lives. It matches my early-autumn feeling of crisp mornings and darkening evenings, and the balance-tipping equinox not far off…
It also speaks of the power of being. ‘The rock will soften under your touch’, and ‘your presence will built soil’. What would it be like to put our trust more into our quality of being, our presence, and maybe a bit less into trying to have all the surface requirements covered? Not that those are unimportant, but I notice that when I hold those a bit lighter and make them the second most important thing rather than the first, there are real benefits. And then there’s space for ‘a flowering, an opening’ and for finding belonging, even in difficult circumstances.
Photo by Darkmane Arweinydd on Unsplash