Home

It has been a long journey,
and it is late as you return
from your travels. 

You are tired.

The weather has not been good,
bitter, blinding snow for hours without end,
slick treacherous roads, almost invisible

in the night, black ice lurking
like an assassin as you journeyed
without a map, to an unknown destination.

No, the whole journey was not one of darkness,
some days the sun shown,
and the mountains rose before you on a road

that seemed somehow straight and pure,
yet days always turned to night,
and the end never seemed quite in sight

and you lived your life like a modern day Abraham,
always wandering to the next land,
seeking that place of warmth, peace and eternal safety, seeking

the perfect in, the perfect church, the perfect love
that somehow always involved a new journey,
new twists, turns, dark roads, elusive destinations,

that brought you…. back here, always back here.
But that is the way of it, sometimes,
that we have to travel in darkness

to find out way home.

About this poem

The past couple of days I have been traveling to attend a conference on the science of how we develop good mental/emotional habits. The trip there began in a snow storm, and ended late yesterday with clear skies and beautiful flaming sunsets. I love travel, but I was glad to get home. When I got home, and looked up the word for today’s poem and meditation, it was…. home.

And so I thought about my own life, and particularly the journey of the past few years and how, after madness, success and dark failures, I have come back to my core the past few years. That though jobs, situations, struggles and nearly every aspect of my situation, even down to where I live today, has changed… my life keeps coming back to a core, and
while the travels are often fascinating, beautiful or frightening, it is the core that holds the best beauty of all – safety – because it is real, unchanging, and life giving.

Faith is the biggest part of that core, not the time in church teaching or singing or talking, but the real faith, the daily spiritual disciplines that sustain me. When I keep to them, my life, for all it’s struggles, is good. When I fail to keep them, my life, even in the midst of plenty and beauty, is not.

You’d think I’d learn, but like so many others, I have to travel sometimes, to appreciate home. Sad, isn’t it. But true.

Tom

PS – The photograph was taken at the American Frontier Museum in Staunton, Va.

About these Lenten Poems

My friend Cathy Benson is on to something. Instead of doing without for Lent, she is doing MORE with a prayer project that is thoughtful and caring.

Giving up something for Lent is a church tradition, not a biblical command. It was designed to get our minds and hearts right as we approach the holy week and Easter. It’s a good spiritual discipline.

But I think a spiritual discipline of doing something more is also a powerful way to prepare our hearts for Easter. The Methodists, through their “Rethink Church” initiative have come up with a photographic way to do this (see below). I am going to add a poem with each image for the lent season to help prepare myself. Feel free to glom on to the idea, visit the blog and read, or share your thoughts and prayers.