ON THIS FIRST DAY
Up,
and in the butterscotch chair
while coffee brews. I begin
reading A Year with Bonhoeffer,--
the daily meditations by turning
back to January 1–2025:
God becomes human, a real human being,
on this first day. I began this journey
October 12, when Steve gave us
both the book. We had been driving
to Ellensburg each week, studying DB’s
Discipleship—his work on the Beatitudes
re-opening the hunger that can’t be taught,
blessed are those,--what had broke me open
in the story, broke me again in the words.
Sweet with the practice of early rising,
the dark listen through other ears. Music
available to all at no cost. It’s a new time
again. One with destructive empathy,
de-constructing one’s own feelings.
God wants me to be human too. On this
first day, bird feeders full of thistles
for the finches, God leads us
into absurdity. What am I doing
with this rich kid, newly arrived
from the beaches of Barcelona?
How is it that God sounds so much
like my mother's cry. Her song carries,
crossing the shallow seas of North Dakota.
Jim Bodeen
1-3 January 2025
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