The Welcome.

Many years ago
I had a mystical experience
in the wilds
of far northern Minnesota.

Over the course of a year
in a quiet cabin there,
under Red Pines
and a stone's throw
from a nameless lake,
I received a welcome
and an embrace in long strokes
of beauty and gentleness.

A sort of homecoming
to the Father
and in the joy of his presence there;
access to the very heart of the Father
through the willing sacrifice
of the Son, pressed into my very body
by the work of the Spirit
under those pines
and tucked away inside
that quiet cabin
so many years ago.

It's that same welcome
I look for with others
as a
guide and companion.
My poetry and spiritual direction
are both of the same mapping project.
They're quiet attempts
to find our way together to that quiet cabin
in the woods.

And so my offer to you, dear reader, is simply
to keep seeking — for He rewards those who seek.
And if my hidden life-project of poetry and spiritual direction
might be of some small help to you in that search,
then I am made glad.