Where Hearts Make Gardens

You have said, Let not haste be upon you
for I've gone ahead and I've got your back.

It is the herald who will run
with the revelation.

Waiting
will make room for living.

Longing
will make room for belonging.

There has been only a whisper of wisdom
to go on.

But a whisper is what called Elijah
to the mouth of the cave.

And each breath is what carries us
from day to day.

We will not wait for the eventuality of Heaven
or for all of our dreams to come true,
only to lose sight of the door.

Because Heaven has already been planted
where hearts make gardens.

And all it takes is for us to turn the key
and we're there.

Jenneth Graser

Photography by Benjamin Combs Unsplash

A Psalm of Mercy Relentless

Your mercy spreads like waves
relentless over the faintness of my soul.

How long, Oh Lord, is the question
that rises from deep within.

Because it is only while I am alive
that I can be the expression of
your love and light into the world.

Deliver me by the mercy that keeps on
coming.
Deliver me, by your mercy that alone
can save.

I receive no comfort from my futile efforts.
I cannot continue in groaning or tears.

All evil, flee, all darkness go!
For you, Oh Lord have risen upon me
and you have heard my every cry.

You receive and hear the prayers
I offer.

All darkness will turn back and return
to the place from which it comes.
It will turn back from the threshold of the door.

Your mercy will comfort me.
Your acceptance will soothe and re-create
my soul.

Your discipline will not consume me for
I am the Father's pleasure
and you have borne me into true delight.

Your enjoyment is upon me with
the soakings of mercy, filling, my every
broken place with your love.

Amen.

Jenneth Graser

Photography Frank Park Unsplash

What It Is to Be Seen

It is not a simple matter of arriving,
but of listening into the times we have been given.

We have scrambled for truth between the lines
and those who have aged through selfless acts of kindness
are hidden in the cracks of the world.

It is all in the eyes, he said.
The eyes we have dared to face with our eyes,
until we know what it is to be seen.

Seen with the fire that blazed the suns into being
and the love that causes knees to fold
and the power that causes rocks to weep

and we have felt the tears well up from
within the places no words are spoken

and the spirit has a voice most clear

and all of the things that have fallen down
or away, pale before these ruptures of light,

because we are made from such love, to be loved.
Yes, we are made from such love, to be love.

Jenneth Graser

Photography Julia Caesar Unsplash

It Is Not So Hard to Go Within After All

It is not so hard to go within after all.

Open the gate of my garden home,

breathe on top of the morning chill, a song.

I feel you urge me towards the sanctuary.

It is more thorough than before, 

when I was so busy searching for what is lost.

The windows frame what is so familiar

and yet, it's all become a platform of the spectacular.

The shadows on the curtain were not there before

and now they are pulsing on the fabric cascade.

The jasmin that was closed in bud

is now a flush of white stars flung into the kitchen.

I was looking to move on, feel different,

get on with mid-life into whatever's next

and now I've been surprised into your face.

I've come to the grass under the knee,

I've come to the flowers in the grass

and all that lives under the grass.

I've come to the smallness of life

where your largeness is hidden.

Your face is growing with the roots

quietly interlaced and drinking

all the earth has to offer.

Jenneth Graser

Photography Aaron Burden Unsplash

When the Day Was Set to Unravel, Here You Are

The steam from the cup of tea 

has become a ministry of your presence.

When the day was set to unravel, here you are.

Rain collects across the valley in sheets 

and from my window I watch it come

into the garden from afar, blown in from the sea.

The expanse of your heart is infinitely large

in every breath waiting to be realised.

If it cannot be in the things I have wanted,

then it can be in what's in front of my eyes

waiting to be seen.

Awareness is: becoming a part 

of the miracles in the moment I am living.

Belonging in your love, opens me

to the beautiful genius of your creation

in a humble beetle folded in with the washing

crawling free.

Or a moth on the curtain, fuzzy creeping over

my fingers onto the windowsill.

I am grateful for the things that don't always

work the way I want them to.

They are teaching me into patience,

a patience that has not always been so forthcoming.

If I stop wanting so badly,

I will dip deeply into this moment and draw forth

an infinity of living waters.

Jenneth Graser

Photography Carli Keen of Unsplash

Where I Truly Belong

I wake up to the aliveness of you

You have made me a Child of your own

There isn't a moment of less than another

We are all equally Beloved.

You are not distant as I sometimes imagine

Hope is real in the embrace of your arms

When I feel tired and full of regret

You lift me higher than I've ever been.

I am coming back to first love

And to a love going deeper mature

I am coming to the door of your knocking

And opening wide for you to come in.

The music will always be singing within me

Worship to you is ingrained in my heart

You appear in disguise in my dreams of the night

I am not hidden or lost in your eyes.

You have a unique plan and purpose for our lives

We are not losing the path or the way

Because you said that your sheep know your voice

And you are the Way and the Truth and the Life.

I am coming back to awareness

Putting all else aside, getting rid of distractions

I am entering the holy of holies

And finding myself where I truly belong.

Amen.

Jenneth Graser

Photo by Pablo Heimplatz on Unsplash