This week we launch our sixth animated reading. The next five weeks of blog posts will draw from themes in this poem. If you like the video, please share with others.
Standing in the Place of Stillness
I have been here before –
I remember the pasture
That beautiful expanse.
˜
I remember the silence and peace.
It covered me
I felt secure.
I was only a child.
˜
Standing in the place of stillness
No other place I loved to be.
˜
With the passing of years
The visits grew less.
Then one day
Life got serious, I got anxious,
I forgot where to go.
The path was hidden
˜
Motion and movement now normal
And reminiscence of the silent expanse
Seemed to haunt more than comfort.
˜
The place of stillness is a mirror,
Reflecting the condition of our souls,
For our busyness has blinded us
To what has grown…
A dark
Vast
Hole!
˜
Oh, place of stillness,
Rampart of rest,
Stronghold of strength!
Where have you gone?
Were you just a dream?
I long to find you once again.
˜
To children this place of stillness is absolutely free,
To adults it requires quite a fee,
A full letting go of all I call “me” –
Schedule as me
Job as me
Family as me.
There we learn to sit and
Experience the freedom to be.
˜
The place of stillness was never hard to find.
Standing in the place of stillness,
Was it only a figment of my mind?
˜
Then one day
In ceasing to strive I found the meadow
And once again
Stillness has become my friend.
˜
In the place of stillness
I am learning how to live,
For there I find sufficient strength
That He alone can give!
˜
Yes, I am standing in the place of stillness
And there is no other place I’d rather be.
Standing in the place of stillness
Thank God, a stance I never outgrew.
This poem has been adapted from the poem by the same name in, David Trementozzi, Light for the Dark Night: Embracing a Heart of Holy Desperation (Maitland, Fl.: Xulon, 2005).
