I learned to be still,
An unwilling student,
The lessons were brutal,
My world was frantic.
I thought I was the teacher,
Stillness needed a few lessons from me.
But, to stop and listen,
To cease the idle chatter,
I faced the truth,
That I couldn’t go on,
Forced flat on my face,
Sobbing out my pain,
I was forced to be still.
In the stillness came a voice,
At first I didn’t understand,
I tried to get up to hear better,
But, I fell on my face again,
The voice spoke to me once more,
Rest my child, learn from me,
Listen and be still.
My soul began to open,
Broken by the harsh edge of life,
Jagged edges – shaped by brutal words,
Fragile at every point,
In the stillness I learned to open my heart,
To a God who spoke trust and hope.
Together our souls were stilled,
The teacher and the learner,
Creating the new creature,
Emerging from the shattered wreck,
In the stillness I came to see,
The rebirth of hope in me.