Message in a Bottle

12/15/23

I took a walk along the surging gulf

across a barren shoreline filled vastly with

no answers

under the bright winter sun

in hopes the wild-ness would silence my pain and

constant questions

and help me feel

small

trusting God with the higher view

and her keener eye

with our keening

Mama the untangler

who reminds me - children don't always see how to make things better and their ideas can

backfire

She who is wiser. She who is older. She who is bigger.

This isn't the sea I had hoped for, churning and mangling, bungling every last thread of seaweed and yesterday's message-in-a-bottle.

turning sand dollar pentacles to dust

pummeling a wall into the shoreline.

How quickly the landscape changed… sometimes daily

I couldn't keep up.

As I cross this windy beach, this I know:

Those who want clarity will seek it, and

we confirm the stories we are carved by life to believe

until we refuse.