Christians have long used creative works in order to connect to God and nourish their souls through contemplation. Those images and works do not always require any overt religious features in order to help us enter into the thin places where our souls flourish. As you read through the following poem, take the time to experience it fully, with as many senses as you can. Don’t rush through it, and linger in different places as long as you like. Feel free to read through it more than once, and see how it speaks into your soul. Let your breathing become prayer for insight, and gently inquire of these words, to see if they have anything to speak to you.

harrumphing

by Rachel Elliott

there is something exotic and mysterious happening in my yard.

limbs akimbo
crouching, reaching, hooting

pink and wild creatures
preen and lift faces
to the wet sky

pink cheeks pinkly hooded
in the plinking, plopping rain

sacred rituals observed:
water and earth and leaf and sand
each added in their perfect measure

recipes for a feast of kings
burrow of rabbits
nest of bluebirds

how to be mystical
yet never
solemn or serious
is a secret of a young life
and an old one

lost in between
watching out my window
wishing i knew the measurement

of water and earth and leaf and sand

—

Rachel is a mom who works full time for Habitat for Humanity, helps with a church plant and has raised two great girls. The youngest is sixteen this month. This poem poured out of Rachel’s heart as she looked from her kitchen window at her young girls fully immersed in a world of imagination in the back yard.

Image attribution: Omegaforest / Thinkstock