RETREAT

A
time
to just sit
under the tree of self,
just to have some time
to be quiet by the water,
to think, to reflect, to pray,
to realize I’m sitting upon roots,
to be grateful for all those
who grew me to this moment,
to feel the trunk of one’s life
against one’s back,
to feel the strength of that life,
to see the good times and the bad,
the sickness and the health,
to look up and see one’s branches,
all those people we reached out to in our life,
and then to see all the other trees,
all those other people we moved with
in the wind and in the rain,
in the cold and in the heat of life,
all those in whose shade we sat,
and then to remember with tears of joy and sorrow,
those who have died, fallen like leaves,
but we, knowing with faith,
have risen to new life with Christ,
the resurrection
and the life. Amen.

© Andy Costello,

Reflections, 2008