answering the call (in five acts)

Answering The Call
(In Five Acts)

I

It’s not that God didn’t call me
I just wasn’t able to answer!
Time and circumstance gnawed through the wires
The receiver slipped from its cradle, all circuits busy,
And when I opened my mouth to speak
Nothing poured forth from recalcitrant lips,
Carried off in an instant by an elusive, provocative wind.

II

It’s not that I couldn’t engage my senses
I saw the garden rise up just beyond the cobbled wall!
Tasted the nectar of paradise tickle my tongue,
The wooden gate unhinged, waved me in with gentle sway;
I continued to fumble, fingers swaddled,
And when a moist and ravenous soil engulfed the key,
Disorientation overtook me
The doorway lay open in front of my face
Yet somehow, I failed to notice.

III

I heard my name echo,
Ricocheting from sky to earth, stone and sea,
I knew it was me being summoned!
But the veil blinded, rendered me irretrievably unresponsive
I struggled without pause to disentangle from my web of mortality
Thrashing about to prove my rabid invincibility
Demanding to be given that which is mine,
Until I collapsed, spent and dry.

IV

Unable to walk to the mountain,
I waited for the mountain to come to me;
Hearing no reply to my angry protestations,
I surrendered my voice and entered the silence;
Stripped bare of unremitting arrogance,
humility found its way into my heart;
Finding comfort in the lap of unconditional Love,
Forgiveness washed over me, renewing, invoking;
Doing Nothing, I became The All.

V

It’s not that I hadn’t been filled with desire!
It’s not that I couldn’t engage my senses!
I heard my name echo: I wanted to answer!

“Thank you for holding;
I’ll take that call now.”