Pilgrim God, I’m back. You’ve walked with me on the road; stay with me a little longer. There are no “Footprints” here; no cosy memes clogging up other’s timelines. This is real, and no one-size-fits-all. My spiritual Size Fives aren’t someone else’s neatly -fitting Size Threes. Yet you died with no shoes on, no nothing; everything stripped away. Naked. “Why have you forsaken me?” Your cry echoes down the centuries, from the lost, the confused; from lonely bedsits; hospital bays; from accidents, disasters, the field of battle and scenes of exploitation too horrible to mention. And sometimes from the hard slog: that soul-destroying job; exhausted carer; the sheer, bone-weary effort of getting up to face yet another day. Stay with me, God. Stay with all of us as we hobble along together nursing our spiritual (and actual!) bunions; our wobbly hearts and our heartache; our wonky backs and our bodies wearily shouldering our burdens and responsibilities. Stay with me, God; let me know I’m not alone. Give me back that spark of joy: of creativity, compassion and love of creation to share with my fellow travellers along the road wherever the journey takes me.
24.9.21, St Beunos