There was an unexpected journey during these Lenten days.

Sensed the need to go!

Not knowing what to expect

feared for the worst.

Arrived by plane – tried to hide feelings of

concern, sadness, overwhelming love.

Set out together on the long road home.

No music, no joy

just the noise of the car wheels turning.

So many thoughts, little conversation.

Countryside bleak, ravaged by drought,

fields and hillsides devoid of life,

wheels kept turning.

Tried to make light of things

but fragility kept conversation at bay.

Countryside green, closer to the coast.

Familiar names flashed by

no time to stop and relish.

Feelings of abandonment,

where are you God?

The present, blurring all certainties.

Another evening, darkness set in,

wheels kept turning,

single-lane motorway, narrow, winding.

Headlights, trucks tearing past,

raining heavily, desperate fatigue.

Horror of the moment, crippling fear,

the wheels kept turning.

Arrived, a sojourn for the night,

relief, sweeping aside exhaustion,

a light on, welcoming.

Stepped into the gentle night air

overwhelmed by fragrance, pungent, familiar,

a flowering bush.

Memories of a childhood garden,

of simple delights, of the longer journey.

The three shades of flowers,

white, lilac and lavender,

a fragrant reminder of abiding presence,

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow!

Inhaled the sweetness, safe for now,

gratitude sweeping aside desolation.

The journey not done,

but welcomed in love,

a brief return to normality.

Refreshed, final stretch now,

the wheels kept turning

not much has changed,

yet fragrance had awakened hope,

even as the rain set in once more.

The noise of the windscreen wipers

creaking back and forth,

become a song, a whispered prayer,

God of yesterday, today and tomorrow.

This journey ended;

wheels finally stopped turning.

The Lenten journey also reached its climax,

the waxing moon,

heralding the fragrance joy of Easter.

Intimate Presence, hope in darkness,

the sacred graces of this season,

abiding God of

yesterday, today and tomorrow.

 

Mary Robson

(Image by Mary Robson)