“With tired feet I scrunch the pebbles at the shoreline, walking hard, pushing my body at the wind as if I could break through the choices and enter the place of peace. A long tree trunk, white with ocean washing, soft with the long slow tempering of time, beckons my body and I sit, then lie along its narrow surface.
And from that prone and precarious balance, I see a tree whose fruit, above the picking line, waits for autumn winds to gather.
I see a hedge of foxglove and blueberry, queen anne’s lace and ragwort, audience to the butterfly ballet choreographed by the unseen master of the dance.
I hear the triumph song of crickets and the satin swish of ocean-tumbled pebbles and my heart reminds me that God is here, not commanding, judging, threatening, or punishing, but creating a world so wonderful, a prayer so obvious that could I but cease in my fever of petition, I could witness its beauty, too.”
Reverie on an August Afternoon by Elizabeth Tarbox (1944 – 1999), UU minister
Chorlton Unitarians 