Time to gather in
piles of wood cut in Spring-time –
deadwood carefully taken
down
before nesting season
and loosely stacked for summer’s drying.
As September’s chilly mornings set in
its all too clear that winter’s coming
and hearth needs tending;
time to collect, split, and restack
that which will provide our comfort,
warmth and security when
snow begins to fly.
With wheel-barrow in hand
I march into the woods,
claiming summer’s undisturbed
pyramids of logs
only to discover another has
taken up residence in my pilings.
Little Graymouse tumbles out
while grabbing leaning timber –
scurrying under and up and
tumbling out again with another grab.
In the sheltered place down under
patted earth reveals
stashes of acorns and seeds;
preparations for the bleaker times
while I continue to slowly dismantle
a refuge prepared for the season to come
in order to prepare for mine.
Reclaiming fuel for my fire
mouse house dwindles
until Graymouse desperately
climbs the sapling Maple whose base
once served as home.
Racing higher and higher and
out on a precarious thread of a branch
20 feet above,
Graymouse watches
as I guiltily place the last kindling bits
into my barrow.
And so it goes with the very next pile:
another Graymouse and another home
destroyed so my winter will be secure.
I stop and stand accused – watching
as they watch me in silence.
Why is my warmth and security
more valuable than a small gray creature?
How is it that I can so easily
dismantle, displace, and disregard
this small creature?
It is only a mouse.
Yet compassion and guilt arise.
Where will they find home?
Will they be secure?
Should I replace the logs and
secure another home? Can
I fix this?
In compassion and guilt and desire
to mend the life of Graymouse,
do I consider the ways
of the many other homeless near at hand?
or those multitudes in desperate lands
whose homes are destroyed
without thought?
Will warmth and security come?
Who will cry out for those
displaced by terror or whim?
Who am I to be…
for Graymouse? for
the homeless?
for those nearby or far away?
for those longing for security,
comfort, and peace?
Lord, grant me wisdom and courage,
to be moved by compassion,
to be a maker of peace,
to pay attention to all your beloved,
both great and small.
Help me know what to do, and to do it.
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