Opening

No difference to fathom
Between laughing and crying
Just different forms of prayer
Each prayers of my love

Laughing and crying
Best understood
As different ways of paying attention

To the beauty of the world
A beauty that’s already here,
Woven all across,

A mere opening away
A mere opening away
A mere opening away

A beauty that sometimes comes as ‘You’
And sometimes as ‘Me’
And sometimes as the way the sun hits the mountain side
Or the soft tilting of the eagle’s wings
Or the cautious steps of the deer walking through our garden
Or the very rustling of the tree tops causing me to lift my gaze just now

Beauty of sight
And of all the senses
All the outwards ones
And all the inward ones
And all the ones that reach beyond