The Following

1. Truth      
       
Today I did not drive to the end of the road and turn right.      
Instead, I turned left and into the densely wooded area        
whose bridge crosses over the river where fishermen      
become bears dipping their clawed hooks in the falls.        
       
What does it mean when you outgrow all you've been taught;      
seeing a slither of light rise like the thumbnail of God?  Truth        
offers itself to you as a gentleman opening the door to under-      
standing; it also slams it in your face when least expected.        
       
I caught myself leaning into Truth like a disciple leaving        
all I'd known to follow it.  One by one material possessions      
were freely given leaving only simple treasures I'd collected      
until I was left doing the next thing to slowly escape society.      
       
       
2. The Next Thing       
       
Elizabeth Eliot was the widow of Jim Eliot, who was speared        
to death by the East Ecuadorian Aucans. She was left with 10        
month old Valerie in the middle of a jungle thousands of miles        
from home, family, and country.  Their Love Story spanned time      
       
and distance through years of college and after; they decided      
to suspend contact to see if they would be brought back together.        
After five years  they were reunited on a mission field and married      
instantly.  Their only child, Valerie, was the blessing of that union.        
       
Now, Elizabeth, standing in a jungle uncertain which direction        
to take; go back home or stay and continue Jim's work that his        
death In not be in vain, agonized in the midst of humid loss        
and emptiness, lamenting for days over what to do next.    
      
When one day, looking down at Valerie playing in the dirt, she      
realized the next thing to do was to change her diaper.  The        
simple act of doing the next thing led to her destiny. Decades        
later, she and Valerie would sit with the Aucans in Ecuador.        
       
They sat with the same tribe who had stabbed their husband      
and father.  They broke bread and heard the story of why Jim      
had been speared; a silly tribal girl had told them that the white      
faces would bring them harm; for that reason he was murdered.        
       
Sometimes the next thing is easy; sometimes it's not discernible        
choosing is required to create our own switch track of circumstance.        
Love is the Law of Attraction, because of that Elizabeth and Jim        
were brought together again thousands of miles from their origin.          
       
       
3. Eternity      
       
Somehow the left I had taken this morning curled back to a high-      
way bringing me full circle. Arriving late the garden was pouting,        
hanging its head like a "starving" child who had missed breakfast.        
I fill the empty soil of its mouth until so gorged it could drown;        
       
I think sometimes Truth leads you through hamlets shedding        
skins of age;  sometimes across rocky spines of mountains, knees      
ripping against sharp rock. Sometimes, if chosen, you get to do        
the next thing with another; such ineffable beauty lacks any loss.        
       
Jim Eliot said,  "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain        
that which he cannot lose."  I follow Truth for the eternity of Love.        
       
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