Come With Me (after Thomas Merton) I enter the room, close the door. Notice a faint but pleasant scent, yesterday’s ylang-ylang and lavender. The house is silent. I sit for a while, one hand gently resting on another. This cocooned time is mine yet Other. A breeze plays through the open window, I hear birds singing outside. Rising, I light a small candle carefully placed on the facing pine chest. The tiny flickering flame draws me back to stillness. Precious ones whom I love or once loved, who are gone or absent, sit with me. Moment by moment this is how it is. Life’s simplicity pleads for the world’s attention. Shouted or whispered, the message is always the same: Come with me to the palace of nowhere where all the many things are one.
Rachel Stanworth
65
