Realize

 

 

 

Realize

It was a difficult sheet of music.

Laboriously she struggled –

Measure by measure

Note by note.

Fianlly with ten-year-old exasperation

She presssed her fists into her cheeks;

“I know I’m playing the right notes

But I just don’t hear the music!”

O God, what a vivid portrait

Of our harried and hectic lives;

We live in the right houses

Give to the right charities

And read the right books.

We sit in the right church pews

Speak to the right people

And smile the right smiles.

We buy the right clothes

And drive the right cars

And join the right clubs.

Yet, far too often

There’s a mysterious emptiness –

A futility in the midst of activity.

The music is missing.

O God

You alone can create new songs

In the depths of our jangled hearts. Take over.             

                     -Ruth Harms Calkin