tomorrow it will be three months since steve died.
it might as well have been a thousand.
the longest three months in all my years.
and the most pungent.
it is time for steve's words again.
here is a poem:
1000 Pilgrim Days
I’m remembering when we set sail
With a new country alive in our minds,
Just right there,
Just beyond our reach.
Uncharted water,
Unknown harbors,
In between.
Taking tabernacle packs, cloaks and sturdy shoes.
(Dream homes left behind.)
Fear and hope and daily prayers as company.
Casting off with trembling hands,
With burning hearts.
Entering the channel,
No navigation on this river.
Carried now on the current.
No going back.
And with unpredictable weather
From north, south, east, and west.
Out of nowhere,
Clear, cool days turned to furnace blasts,
Raging storms becalmed.
Nights embroiled with fiery beasts,
“Have mercy, Lord, have mercy!”
Mornings provisioned under Angel feathers.
“You have brought me in safety to this new day.”
And for all these traveling days,
One thousand pilgrim days,
Solitude and togetherness,
Letting everything happen to us,
Found again and again.
We are almost there.
Just a while longer.