God Is the Water by Lyla June Johnston
God is the Water
When I close my eyes at night
I can feel the rock being cut open
by water.
I hear a grandfather song
and it sounds like sand
walking down the river bottom.
In this song they talk about how even
the mighty canyon rivers began as
a meandering stream.
Beneath the gentle waters there are people.
Not people like you and I.
Stone people.
When I close my eyes at night
I am one of them
and God is the water.
Over lifetimes She eats at me
until I am polished and smooth.
She teaches me
about being gentle and persistent,
about patience and commitment.
When I close my eyes she says to me
in trickles and bubbles:
“Journeys.
Take them.
Try to remember who you are along the way.
I have nothing for you but these words.
Take them with you
and I will see you again when you arrive
at the ocean’s throne
as one million kernels of sand”
Her voice
hums in my blood
quiet as a stream in the night
and it is a song about how
we are all
just
so loved
The eagles dip their talons into Her soft body
and pull from it
a fleshmeal for their
children.
They sing this grandfather song with her
and it sounds like feathers
cutting into the sky.
It is a song about how even
hatred surrenders
to wonder.
She is breaking my heart apart like
a stubborn puzzle of problems.
Even the hardest doubts and sorrows
give way to
Her infinite grace.
And who knew that
sometimes grace comes from
standing in the wind until
everything we think we own
is ripped away from us
and replaced with a weightlessness
so profound that we can’t not cry
tears of absolute praise
and run all around the river banks shouting to the
the minnows and the cattails and the crawdads
about the truth of beauty?
The truth of a God that
breathes through the trees
weaves winter from water and night
weaves bodies from dust and light
and carries us down the river of life over
and over until we finally understand
the meaning of forever.
In the language of the stones there is
no word for mistake.
Only the complete understanding of what it
means to be a beloved son or daughter.
I am the rock
and God is the water.
