Do Not Go Gently....

Sorrow often burrows in a heart.  It lingers and while the eyes may remain dry, there is a well of tears that hover, just below a normal surface.
There reaches a point where the soul's fatigues weigh heavy on the body, where a spirit has carried heartache until the point that it, too, must rest from a weary load.
It is the point where the church should not ask what you can do for it, but what it can do for you.
When I find the sorrow and weariness resting too close to the surface, I seek God.  I do not seek Him in buildings of wood and concrete.  I seek Him in the wild places.
I find Him in those places where man is an intruder, where the workings of nature as clear,  where weather blows wild, the sun beats down and life finds a way to thrive.
I find Him in broad vistas, wind swept plains and the frail structure of a dew sprinkled spider's web.  I find comfort in the animals.  I find comfort in watching the simple joy of a sparrow in flight, a hawk on the wing, a deer who treads softly along needle strewn paths.
I retreat to the comfort that I found as a child.  I re-open to the bird song, and the happy panting of my dog.  I let my hands trail the soft smooth sides of a horse, I sit and watch ducks glide through the water.  I will lay on the earth, and let the sun warm those cold parts within me. Animals have always shown me the higher part of life, by not worrying over it.  They show me the joy of the present, no worries of tomorrow, no regrets of the past. 
While this retreat was planned well in advance, God knows my needs and it dove tails into what my soul yearns for, as only the Creator can do.
I will leave my sorrows in the wild places.  I will leave them for the birds to ponder, circle and ignore.  I will leave them in the winds and they will rush by strange places that haven't heard the voice of man. I will come home, refreshed in spirit, my eyes reopened and my heart full of joy.
I will be able to face the memories of my sorrows with gentle knowledge that, yes, this too, shall pass.  I will face them knowing that I have survived, I will face more, and I will survive again.
So, I don't go gently.  I go with an ocean of tears to give to a desert.  I go with emotions that roil across the landscape of my heart.
But in the return........ I will return with gentle fire, and I will be better to have felt it.

And how was your day?