lovely liminal

we gather here today in the liminal.
longing is moving,
bubbling up,
pulling forward.
yet liminal is in action,
resisting the motion,
clinging from behind,
lurking just ahead.

you offer, see what’s here.
there’s familiar and new in the same place,
progress and wait in the same space.
you’re here on the chase,
you’re here setting the pace.
i do.

you invite, tell me what you need.
water from rocks,
bread from the sky,
provision is always here.
release the previous blessings,
embrace what’s tempted to be count out.
plenty springs forth here.
you’re teaching me yearning,
in and about.
the needs asked for,
and those unutterable,
all quenched, yet all expanded.
all satisfied, yet all palates ruined.
the hunger and thirst are different here.
and yet, i do.

you inquire, can you trust me here?
thankful for the simple,
establishing the resilience to carry the significant.
you’re kind to gift the long way ‘round,
intentionally packaged for raising and rising.
together we unveil,
the weapons for new battles,
the endurance to engage,
the courage to conquer.
this land laid out for me,
inhabited in time and form by your design.
you’ll define ready for us,
the way parted in rhythm and rhyme.
i do.

you whisper, wait with me here.
there’s somehow streams in this wilderness,
there’s somehow freedom in these bounds.
isolation looks a bit more like quality time,
slow looks a bit more like scheduled,
hard looks a bit more like deep,
poor looks a bit more like rich.
new categories for what remains,
new clarity on what sustains.
the hallucinations of the desert,
the loveliness of the liminal.
i do.

you remind me, i’ve met you here.
you know me new,
i’ll find you knew,
and loved me newly again.
you know me where,
i discounted as there.
for that’s the place you deeply care.
i do.

you persist, come away again,
back up the peak,
up to the mountain vows.
where love takes altitude,
and your dwelling takes new proximity.
i started with longing and found it lovely,
i thought it little and found it lavish.
attached and ultimate.
i do.

you call me out, i know you,
soft and melted under the sun again,
seen and exposed, raw and ripe.
healed and wounded,
fragile and all the more sound.
help me with words for the wordless,
presence for the present,
in so many ways i can’t,
yet again, i do.

so here now to pronounce,
the loveliness in the liminal season.