Each Wednesday,     Tim Carson shares 
the wonderings of heart and mind and the inspirations and quandaries of the spirit. You are invited to wonder along with him through the telling of stories, reflections on faith and observations on the events that shape our lives.  

Tim Carson

 

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Wednesday Wonder
March 9, 2016

At our recent veterans retreat one of our leaders was singer-songwriter Carrie Newcomer. One of her group exercises was a writing project. She threw out a leading phrase and we free-wrote for ten minutes without filtering, correcting or editing. The point is to write from the down deep places, allowing one connection to bridge to the next.
 
The stimulator she presented before the timer began was "I've kept it all these years ..."
And this is what I wrote:
 
The photos, childhood, kept and then passed on to me
the suitcase of photos, some of which survived
my parents' house fire
floating in the water-filled basement
water from fire hoses, dowsing fire
creating a lake beneath charred embers above
The suitcase becomes an ark
all the photos lining up two-by-two
creatures of the past floating along
into my hands
like a dove with olive branch, green and leafy
from past and fire and the generations
floating along, riding the wave
until at last I gaze at one photo on the mantle
my mother when seventeen
all fresh, open to the world
a life before my father and what would become me
She looks through dark adolescent eyes
long before the arthritis, and cancer, and limping
still running, carefree
floating along toward the future
and the dry land
of this page 

 

@Timothy Carson 2016

 

Click here to go to Tim Carson's blog, VitalWholeness  http://vitalwholeness.wordpress.com/  

Broadway Christian Church
573.445.5312   www.broadwaychristian.net