I used to think everything would be all right.
.all right
And I called it good.
Bowed low at the altar of padded pews and neatly folded answers, All was good and all was good.
Paths lead gently into tomorrow.
I walked with a smile that feared the night that never came.
Then one day, a man visited my door on an usually average afternoon. At the hearing of his knock, my heart weakened. Deep thuds sounded on the door I held key to not asking for entrance but announcing arrival. Even in the absence of invitation, he would not be shunned, rebuked or dispelled.
I just held my breath as the water rose higher and prayed for my lungs to seal.
All is not well, friends. As in, not all okay.
Days burn uncontrollably wrong. Evil and wrong lie in wait, tangled in the day like weeds in flowers.
Don’t pluck them lest they all get pulled in a day not ready for beauty to look ugly. Tears escape broken hearts holding together weakly. Frailty is the song on the lips of those whose hearts dare not die alone. Life gets so twisted and sideways that we wake after days lost drifting to a something we barely even recognize. This is not what we dreamed of when all was all right.
In the strain and the sweat and the swearing of holding the world while fumbling for good, a small voice whispered, “Can we just break?”
“Is everything all right?” “Is everything all right?” “Is everything all right?” “Is everything all right?” “Is everything all right?” “Is everything all right?”
Is everything all right?
“I am broken parts sure of only weaknesses With nothing left to show, no illusions left to hide behind”
All men must break before they bare. Lift our hearts out of their cage in worship and wonder, in defeat and abandon.
In the dark of night, the lone falling, the cold sinking ... the death of you and me and us quieted in the birth of beginning again
“All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.”
...all has always been well and all right. Before breath and time dying, God celestially expansive then gloriously finding his created lost souls losing ground and breaking loose in night.
Another day awoke me from staring too long at pictures burning. Day young and new brushed my shoulder broken then, now healed under pressure that ended.
I now know that to be good, rightly. And amen and amen.