a pumper and a ticker
heartbeats as the heart beats.
there is life in the blood.
life moving towards empty places,
nutrients towards the suffocating.
pulling the toxic away,
pushing oxygen towards.
atrium, ventricle.
there’s pressure in the blood.
close to the heart - high velocity and high pressure.
further to the extremities - lower velocity and lower pressure,
a trickle at times, but still flowing.
atrium, ventricle, right, left.
there’s rhythm and frequency to the heart.
rhythms and tension bring the chambers to life.
empty, full.
stay, go.
weak, strong.
wrestle, dance.
resist, relent.
winter, summer.
atrium, ventricle. right, left. in, out.
the potency of one only in contrast to the other.
the rhythms and tensions are by design.
beats and pumps.
repeatability and sustainability crucial.
timing is purposeful.
it must be set beyond us, yet within us.
some elements to our control, but far less than we’d imagine.
frequency determined by the environment, the demands.
sometimes slowing, but never stopping.
sometimes surging, rising to the occasion.
flowing out with bad, refreshed with the good, the needed.
atrium, ventricle, right, left, onward we go.
emptied, filled, emptied again, filled again.
full is not good if never emptied.
empty is not good if never filled.
this is the blessed life, the paradoxical kingdom.
this is the already crashing into the not yet.
and still pumping, make space for new filling.
filled with the fullness, and overflowing again.
pulsing with life, and not done yet.
now relenting to the pumps of the holy spirit on my behalf,
yet my brain tries to decode the heavenly frequency.
clinging for a heavenly heartbeat.
at times, the pumps are too loud to rest,
too distracting to not hear and feel.
the tank quickly bleeds dry again.
it’s here, my hands open to be touched and held again,
my mind primed for maintenance,
heart weak for a new frequency,
that life pumps in again.
the pulse can slow,
trusting again a more powerful flow.
warmth and fresh again.
atrium, ventricle, and out again.
one surge at a time,
new flow,
just in time.
bringing life and moving out again.
life is in the blood, the movement of the blood.
life is in the flow, the filling of the negative space.
so make room.
shocked into rhythm.
filled with the fullness again.