Sacrifice and Sacred Presence
We have lost lovers, left mystified friends behind,
given up time with family, seen our own time shrink to nothing,
felt wearier than weary, thrown away careers,
increased our indebtedness a hundredfold—
and sacrificed more things than these.
We have given up some layers of protected privilege,
let go of the outer garments of comfort that hid us
from what is real and what is really calling us.
We hear it now at the bedsides of the sick and dying;
we hear it in the soup kitchens, in the prisons,
the homeless shelters, the community meetings.
We hear it in the rituals that mark the Sabbath
and births and deaths and weddings;
and we’ve begun to share it with others—
at first cautiously and then with more confidence,
more openness, more authenticity.
This presence that draws us in and draws us out
and leads us on; this moment; this shimmer
that seems to disappear just as we turn to gaze at it
is our pillar of cloud and fire in the wilderness.
