Poem – Strangely Still and Shifting

I wrote this poem back in April, when the Covid-19 lock-down life was still fairly new and everything felt very shaky and uncertain. Now, almost three months later, this poem still feels very relevant – poignant even. How would I have felt then, knowing the world as I know it now? Most days, this world still feels like it’s crumbling, and I still feel like I’m walking into the unknown. Just because the uncertainty has become a normality doesn’t mean that it has lost the aura of fear surrounding it.

But in the midst of the unknown and the shaking of life, I am slowly, slowly learning how to be still. Slowly learning how to see the joy and peace amidst the fear. Slowly learning to live life well in the in between. Slowly learning to see the beauty in the juxtaposition of this still and shifting world. Slowly learning how to rest in the arms of my Father, who holds the whole world, with all its broken pieces, in his good and gracious hands.  And it’s a very good place to be.

~ 

This world is still and quiet,

yet crumbles around me.

 

My feet are firmly planted,

as I stumble and fall into the unknown.

 

How is there this silence, this peace of

breeze and birdsong,

when my heart aches so deeply?

 

There is this shadow of grief, dark and heavy-

still, the sun is bright

 and somehow all seems right within this world.

 

I do not understand –

and so I sit in this in between,

stuck between wild weeping and a peaceful pause,

struggling to keep my balance

in this strangely still and shifting world.

~

How have you been feeling recently? Is your world strangely still, or is it still shifting? I’d love to hear from you in the comments! 🙂