Dormant...

There is something both sad and beautiful about a stately home that has been abandoned. The home has a past. It held a family, children, and all the possibilities that accompany young life. It held dreams and a future. This is part of its beauty--its past. It is the contrast--the stillness, the emptiness, the seeds of decay that evoke the sadness. What once was is no longer.

Yet, if you look closely, within its current barrenness are the seeds of possibility, of new life, of repair, of a future.

I have thinking about my own life--this branch I have been given-- in this very way over the past few months. My nest is now empty. What once felt comfortable and full now feels quiet, dormant, and unfamiliar. Yet, within this stillness, I feel the faint hint of an inner stirring. Of new life. But, it is only a soft stirring. And, I don't know what it means or where it leads. And so I wait... pray...listen.


Breathe on me, breath of God,
Fill me with life anew,
That I may love what Thou dost love,
And do what Thou wouldst do.

Breathe on me, breath of God,
Until my heart is pure,
Until with Thee I will one will,
To do and to endure.

Breathe on me, breath of God,
Blend all my soul with Thine,
Until this earthly part of me
Glows with Thy fire divine.

Breathe on me, breath of God,
So shall I never die,
But live with Thee the perfect life
Of Thine eternity.

Edwin Hatch