Celebrating Tonight's Walk

By Linda Grupp Boutin

A journal question, a quick response:

"Journal on your passions serving the Lord. Is this something that is transformational or is this a gift God is developing in you? How has this passion revealed itself in your walk with Him?"

Amazed by my walk that evening with my dog, poetry sprang from my heart, into my mind and flowed out through my pen. Passionately, transforming my defeated thoughts, a gift developing without a doubt.

Tonight's Walk

Orange-frosted, gray-black hills,

Magnolias backlit and silhouetted

Dying rays of the sun.

Stillness and peace, day comes to a close.

My dog, Star, trotting beside my knee.

All of this God has given me.

Sunsets followed by sunrise

Each. Three score now with no

Defeat. Walking in His garden

True. God reveals oh such heavenly hues.

Wondering how does He see it

All? Groves and forests, seas and leaves

Fall. Never misses sparrows wingbeat.

Never misses a harvest replete.

All this God shows to me tonight!

Snickerdoodles, friends, writers and all.

Salted caramel floating above. Gifts

Transformed, sometimes removed from

Grasp. He has given, but how about you?

Driven to watch, to learn, to see.

Open arms are waiting for me. Saviour

Standing above, so fine. Thank you,

Lord, for gifts divine.

Talents flourish, thoughts

Abound. Words pour forth, maybe

Something profound. Justly

Rewarded when used for His

Glory. Submit to find His

Passion borne above. 

Star just before our walk.

Good thing that I wrote it the moment I felt the words. My week had been hard, the month even more so. Health challenges, life troubles, a pet and a sister lost for life. No one ever said life would be easy. So I went to my writing group and wrote down this poem. Feeling peaceful, calm and joyful in the presence of those that I love.

Then Friday mid-afternoon arrived. Violence overtook Paris, shots rang out. Living safely in the United States, I close my eyes and mind to a world wracked with pain. Civil war in Syria reigns for five years straight. The Middle East dried out with drought leading to shortages of all that I take for granted in this quiet cocoon. Insulated from famine, no electricity or water. Shots ring out to remind me that suffering in the world surrounds us. Hundreds of thousands of refugees flee, hoping for help from the western world. Trying to save their babies, children and lives, some are just angry and want to lash out.

French flag

The anger boils over, the killing begins again. My lifetime spent worried when the wars will touch me. Weapons in Cuba, Korea-North and South, Vietnam, kidnappings, assassinations, Grenada, Lebanon, Israel and Egypt, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, 9/11, Al Qaeda, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bin Laden, Iraq and Iran again. Numbness overtakes, I cannot assimilate it all. Hurt and pain, death and destruction reign. I turn to the source of comfort that saves all of faith.

So now the world rallies to try and help France. Memorials are collecting while mass is celebrated at Notre Dame. World leaders consult and candidates debate what to do next. And history repeats, mankind does not change. Fears panic and feet stampede. Peter, Paul and Mary sang about it when I was a child. "Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing..." John Lennon sang about war too, "Imagine."

So I imagine a world with no war or strife. I pray for peace during my lifetime.  I walk in the sunset my hand held safely in the Lord's.