ON THIS FIRST DAY

 

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