Poem October 26, 1987 Issue

The relationship

Mary J.Steele

If I asked You for advice and did not take it,
would You still tell me whenever I asked You what to do?
Would You look up, like some busy judge, annoyed at the
interruption and say,
"I've told you over and over, and you never listen.
Why do you even bother to ask Me,
if you're going to turn right around and do what you want to do
anyway?"

Well, guess what?
I'm here again.
Why am I here?
Because my choices are not Your choices.
Because what I did, did not solve the problem or heal it.
Because I don't like feeling so far away from You.

The earth became still and quiet.
The world stopped—
and right there in that place I realized
ever-presence.
You were
enveloping me....
It was as if I'd never known anything else in my life.
As if I'd never been away.

I will take Your advice.
I will treasure it.
I will live by it.

Mary J. Steele

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