It is important to skip small rocks across a pond, to climb a hill on all four, stand up tall and sing a song. It is important to plant hydrangeas and
pansies, and in a meadow pick daisies.
It is important to drink the sun in a raspberry patch, to
scoop into your mouth red or black. It
is important to barefoot tread in cool mud, along laughing, gurgling streams;
to climb a tree, rough skinned, it is important to scrape your knee. It is important to heal the skin, important
for the sin. It is important to take
some time, important to be well, important to hear it is okay, and important to believe. It is important
to gather a happy toddler into your arms, and important to hold a crying
daughter. It is important to rub the
back of a sleeping boy and hug him still when he’s a man. It is important to bake biscotti and serve iced
tea, to care for the elderly; to swab a brow with furrows tilled on aged face
and heart. It is important to gently touch her traveled feet, to massage with love,
with lightest balm and richest lavender, what toil calloused, to gaze into her
face, to watch silent words spill like flickering sunbeams from blue eyes, to
know a grandmother at the end. It is
important to dig a grave for your dog when he is done, and it is important to
snuggle a kitten who was born. It is important to bow in worship, important to
fall in adoration, prone upon the dirt. It is important to let yourself be
gathered up like a basket of blossoms and held near, treasured for being, for
simply being. It is important to feel
the brush of friendship upon your cheek, it is important to let it touch your
heart. It is important to sit with a
friend, for hours immeasurable and meandering talks, until long shadows from a
retiring sun gather like piles of quilts, reminding we are snug and warm, and
tomorrow’s hope will come again. It is important to write to live well; it is important to breathe to sing
the anthem well, to sing what is worth singing. It is important to dance with hair unfurled, to twirl amidst the holy. It is important to embrace the person embracing,
to know you touch the image of God, in part. So many things
important, so many things holy, so much to ponder, for which to give
thanks. Oh, come with me, we'll pull up a bit of
earth and lie down flat and worship a little while longer.
