God, I am listening.
Our worlds have flipped over like a heaping basket of laundry that could take no more piling on.
And we have become undone.
Rocking ourselves by the window with one eye on the clock and one eye on the news, waiting for a siren or signal to let us know that it’s safe to come out.
Hands occupied with cooking while teaching lost young ones who don’t understand why.
God, I am listening.
Thank you. I received that watch handed to me and everyone else in a gift bag that included masks, sanitizers and a rain check for toilet paper.
A watch that demanded we slow down. With nowhere to run to. Nowhere to run from. Just the watch and essentials that forced us to let go of all occupations and consumptions and just take it in.
God, I am listening.
There is a message here.
There is a lesson.
There is wisdom beyond my finite mind for yours is infinite in its ever presence.
I am listening to the wind and trying to catch the whispers that may linger in it.
I am listening to bird calls in the early morning sky when darkness lifts its veil to the majestic emergence of the sun.
I am listening to raindrops pitter patter on the roof of my home where we are huddled to seek refuge from outside invaders.
I am listening to zooming sirens, vibrating emergency signals lighting up my phone, and coughs muffled or loud.
God, I am listening.
I sit at the edge of my bed every morning with a yearning for wanting to know and do more.
Am I availing this historical moment?
Am I missing the lesson that is skyscrapped so evidently outside my window in the clear blue sky?
Or is it in the stillness or hushness that the most beautiful moments are taught?
So here I am, God.
I am listening.
Because I haven’t had the time to listen in a long while.
I was rushing. I was running. I was planning and doing. I was not listening.
I have sat down. I have caught my breath. I have turned down the volume of life in its superficial empty conversations. Muted the useless banter.
Wiped the slate of my soul clean. An earnest pen in my well rested hand waiting to take note. My ear turned to you, my Lord.
The world did not stop for no reason. We were not plucked from the weaves of life without purpose. The animals were not freed to roam and soar without divine decree. Mankind did not empty their streets and shelter at home without a plan.
There is always a plan.
The limited mind of this attentive creation is seeking to learn a knowledge that is being passed out but she just doesn’t know where to go to collect it.
So she is turning to the one who wrote the test and defined the lesson.
God, I am listening.
-Tumkeen
Tumkeen, Writer+Poet 