"pecking away..."

"they must peck
open their shells..."
- Mary Baker Eddy


peck

peck

peck
peck

peck....

every day
something comes along...
a small
injustice,
the harsh word
i long to take back and
swallow,
a feverish fear of
the unknown....
calling me
forward from this
self-centered
space of
me,
me,
me...

pushing me to
find a way
out of
the
cramped hollow
of the
self

it is the
deeper hunger,
the longing to be good
and true
that
urges me on...

encourages me to
gather all
my
strength and
peck away
at this
ego that seems
to be
all around me...and
yet,

just beyond the hardness of
that
myopic self,
I can see the light

it is not always
bright,
but I know
that it
calls to me
piercing what only seems
a solid,
intractible
self-centeredeness...

that I somehow
know is
never me...

and so I peck,
peck,
peck away at the
hard dome of
where I am tired of
sitting as the center
of my universe,

waiting
for
a crack...

and when a sliver of
light, through that
delicate
fissure,
breaks through,
i close my
eyes and
let the warmth of its
first morning beam
touch my
face
with the
tender
hand
of
God...

and I feel
it awakening something
deep within me
that stretches into
this new
space...

and wants more

peck,

peck, peck,
peck....



"There is within each one of us
a potential for goodness beyond our imagining;
for giving which seeks no reward;
for listening without judgment;
for loving unconditionally."
— Elisabeth Kübler-Ross