This is the time to be slow

“This is the time to be slow,

Lie low to the wall

Until the bitter weather passes.

Try, as best you can, not to let

The wire brush of doubt

Scrape from your heart

All sense of yourself

And your hesitant light.

If you remain generous,

Time will come good;

And you will find your feet

Again on fresh pastures of promise,

Where the air will be kind

And blushed with beginning.”

                                John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

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as in the morning

when the sun has not yet risen

and all is black and gray

and vague

and one feels uncertain

about the ground beneath one’s feet

and gazes cautiously  into

hesitant light

there come times

in life

when one is clad in

the clothes of doubt and uncertainty

and sense of self

wanes

flickering weakly

in such moments

guide my steps

O Beloved One

Help me to move slowly

and gently through

the storm

with open heart and open mind

with open soul

until I find again

that place of light

where the air is “kind

and blushed with beginning.”