A welcome guest

One day it arrived.

It rushed in like a wind blowing open a door which was left slightly ajar, as though there might be a very small possibility of a visitor arriving later. “I’m not staying up for you but you can let yourself in you need”.

And by the morning it had come. But it wasn’t a visitor in the normal sense. It was a feeling,
A feeling with a deeper meaning. A peacefulness had entered in before I had time to scare it out again, and it had settled right here inside.

At first it felt so foreign I didn’t recognise it. But then my heart knew its name. It was forgiveness.
I had forgiven you, as you had forgiven me. Bitterness no longer being entertained had sculked away. Anger had followed it. And forgiveness had arrived.

With this new guest came a deep sense of peace. And I asked the peace to stay; and it said it would.

We are so often governed by our circumstances, when things are going well we are at peace, when they’re not our emotions follow. I used to think that because peace was a gift from God that all Christians should therefore experience peace at all times (‘Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you.’) Yet the Bible actually says that peace is something to strive for always, and that is it inextricably linked to forgiveness (‘Make every effort to live in peace with everyone’, ‘They must seek peace and pursue it’, ‘a future awaits those who seek peace.’) The pursuit of peace is not an easy task, but it is a noble calling.

2 Comments

  1. Well I have been waiting till I had time to write a proper response. I am blown away by both these poems (prose poems!) that you’ve done. So lovely the way they follow each other – almost like you needed to remember “when you were happy together” so that forgiveness could come.
    Knowing how your year has been I “hear” other things but even for those who don’t know there is something in this.
    My suggestion is that you put these with others for a collection. A friend of mine runs Cinnamon Press (I’m sure I’ve mentioned her before) and I think she’d love these.
    I did tell you about the writing retreat in March with Cinnamon didn’t I?
    Keep writing and keep pouring it on the page. And thank you for sharing with the rest of us 🙂

    1. Author

      Diane, thank you for your ever encouraging and much needed feedback. ‘A welcome guest’ was written at the end of last year but I didn’t feel ready to post it. Perhaps it needed to come after the other one. 🙂

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