Used to Be

Used to be I shunned my shoes. But pointed mom to a man with no feet and then I had no further blues.

Used to be I’d eat this and skip that and often whine if it wasn’t just right. Then one day my dad would say, about the scraps I’d thrown away, “what a feast they would be for the many hungry who have nothing to eat but misery” and now each morsel is as dear as can be.

Used to be I’d give thanks for my food and eating to fill sit contentedly still. Then I’d see folks for whom chew was a chore, while for others digestion was for them very sore. So now I am thankful for each bite I take, every swallow I make and for flow-thrus that go just as easy as cake.

Used to be I’d be nimble and quick, move to and fro with no thought to this trick. Then I’d meet people who hobbled about, some with game knees, bad hips, goiter or gout. Now I’m so thankful just to walk in the park with a gait free and easy and pain be without.

Used to be couples I met who divorced, I’d feel sorry for both and had great remorse. But having gone through a similar course—and one I never ever dreamed I would source!—I know how important that empathy is. Even more so did my faith in God grow, and stronger it grew as God carried me through. And while teaching me how very little I knew, that though She/He be a complete mystery, all I need do is believe in what’s good and, too, in what’s true.

Used to be my eternity depended upon the Holy Trinity. Yet to put God in a box built by men orthodox that over the ages became petrified thought denies a reality that lets God be what God is which is all that we see and all that we don’t and even, too, all that we won’t.

Used to be “In the beginning there was the Word.”

Now words just get in the way.

Rfd 11/25/06