There is time

“Fight the good fight of faith” -1st Timothy 6:12

I make time for joy, for laughter, for delight, for sunshine

Time passes, age multiplies, weaknesses accumulate, new aches set in.

I make time for gentleness, for fascination, for tender memories, for wonder

Youth dissipates, our bodies deteriorate, we lay porous and vulnerable to new ails.

I make time for beauty that repairs, for love that heals, for friendships that transform, for happiness that restores

Losses compound, cruelties intensify, enmities accrue, death remains imminent.

I shed cynicism. I rub it against the edges of faith and prayers and imagination and visions. It molts off me and I settle into new growth

My spirit contains worlds scattered across space, held across different orbits. In each, archives of carefully collected words, and thoughts, and stories, and memories fertilize the dust from which I sow my beliefs. The roots buttress and grow into firm, solid stems of unshakable faith. They spread out into branches of eternal hope, bringing forth buds that bloom into flowers of ever-present joy

Here: faith. hope. also, ever-present joy

I reify optimism. It blots out all fears, and worries, and rage, and nightmares, and terrors. It perfumes the present with new promise

Here: a coalescing. an accretion. a cadence. a rhythm. a persisting

Faith-motions-hope-motions-joy-motions-the deracination of fears, and worries, and rage, and nightmares, and terrors — motions new promise

Promise

I hold on to this new promise

I make time. I have time. There is time