"until its calmness claims you..."

"Draw alongside the silence of stone
until its calmness can claim you...”
― John O'Donohue


i place the receiver back
in its cradle
and drop my hands
to my sides

I don't know how to
still the storm
within me,
but I
do know
to

leave the room,
walk out the door,
find the place
within
where nothing
hurts and
anger cannot
enter

so I slip
beyond the walls,
and windows,
and hum of a family,
refrigerator and
my own opinions
to
find the
rock of
my
salvation...

here I will
salvage my peace

here I will be claimed
by the silence of a stone
by
the changeless,
the unshattered,
the unremarkable
face
of
mica-flecked granite
and the unassuming
grays of a
storm-shot
midwestern sky

i reach for her like
a novitiate reaches for
her rosary...

but I have no words to
sing her into
wisdom,
to give her sacredness...

she is sacred in her
silence,
she is wise in the weight of
a stillness that
calms the
rashness of a
sudden storm

i let her lie
within the cupping of
my hands,
eyes closed and
face soft with
surrender...

and it comes

it comes
with all the
quiet power of
the Word...

stillness...

"don't underestimate the value
of doing nothing, of just
listening to all the things you can't hear,
and not 'bothering'.”
― a.a. milne