Desert Fathers

Our deserts are unwanted children,

resented, unembraced. Or, less dramatically,

lost ground, wasted land - dry disgraces

on the way to expected plenitude. Against

our wills, we navigate the shifting grit

blinkered to all but the far, safe side -

a far cry from the desert fathers

who sought out their austere plots of sand,

determined to sift and mine their very aridity.

Like astronomers quarrying the universe

for dark matter, they followed faint trails

into the desert's shimmering mirages, blistering

days, shivering nights. Sifting, sifting, they

persisted in submission,

stumbling upon agates

of illumination, oblique, like sunlight glancing

off rare oases. They trusted in their shifting

open terrain where something might come clear.

What came clear were the raw edges

of their darkness. What came clear

was the sheer allure of light.

(Sheila Rosen)

Very often we push away many experiences that can teach us about life, about ourselves, about God. Our culture, even Christian culture, prefers to have life tied up in neat, manageable packages. Those who deviate from the norm are given 'counsel', sent for 'deliverance'........to 'sort them out', .....they are seldom helped to listen to the totality of their lives, including the aridity, as offering something of great value.