There is a strangeness in this:
this separation,
this new beginning,
these nights in a hotel,
this distance between
where we have lived
and where I am now.

There is an excitement in this:
these new colleagues,
these new associates,
these new faces and places
waiting to know me
and whether or not
I will be what they believe
they have needed.

There is a peace in this:
this patient pursuing of deeply held longings,
this warm breeze filtering through the night,
these small town lights
flickering through the branches,
this calm knowing
that these miles and hours
do not diminish love.

There is a power in this:
this yielding awareness
that it is not alone the years I have lived,
nor the books that I have studied
that has brought me to this place,
this role,
this work.

In those long forming years
of both joy and tears,
courage and fears,
I have cooperated, perhaps,
sometimes with greater
and sometimes with lesser grace,
but I have also kicked and complained
against the very things
that have shaped me for this service,
this calling.

I will try to remember
at all times,
in all things,
whether in weakness or in strength,
whether in power or pity,
that He Who Is In Me
is greater
than he who is in the world.

I will share
the grace I have been shown.

H. Arnett
9/5/15