The Spiritual Discipline of Yellow Flowers

A yellow flower on the side of the road
just outside your favorite diner.
A bee feasts. You stop and watch its joy.

You go in.

Music is playing. Tom Petty. Dire Straits.
The cook is a musician and his stereo is fine
as his choice of music. You listen.

You listen closely. Because that is where you are.
Too easily distracted by the voices in your head.
The questions. The critics.

And so you do what you need to do.
You use the tools you were given at your most broken
And focus. Focus. Focus. On other things.

That’s what you were made for anyway.
Not for yourself. For beyond you.
and that focus brings you back

to yourself.

Some come to it naturally. Not you.
For you it is a discipline. A spiritual discipline,
like prayer, but with more color.