THE   GARDEN

I lost my soul there for a while ….

Actually -  it was a long slow while ….

Work, relationships - some iffy

for a while -  family -  the weekend life -

and then stuff - some forbidden fruit -

the basic indoor ingredients of actual  -

verbal and non-verbal  atheism -

when I  had to move east of Eden ….

I was not  running from God - just floating

downstream to avoid HINTS of God ….

Then I hit 67 plus - when I found myself

in the open sea of life - and death - when

I began  attending more frequent funerals

of  specific relatives and people I had met.

It was then, then, then, I began to know

I had this vast ruined - forgotten garden -

within me. It was overgrown with weeded

paths and a rusty wrought iron bench that

needed attention  - that is, if I wanted 
to meet and sit with God in the cool of the
evening after the heat of the day weeding.

God, once more, you asked, “Where am I?”

“Here,” I answered. Then I asked, humbly,

“Can I come back into the garden?”

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

Cf.  Genesis 2: 4b to 3: 24