“Sometimes we keep dreams or hopes to ourselves. Sometimes it is independence and resistance to change or failure to accommodate the needs of others. Surrendering our will is hard.” –Teresa Reynolds, Fruit of the Vine

Query: What secrets, fears, or doubts are you carrying?

To keep this house

I wake early and sit facing

the ring of big trees,

following the fade of night

into prayers like breath

and sometimes beseeching.

I welcome anyone

who is feeling lost so they

can remember who they are

and that they are

safer than they were

before they got here.

To keep this house,

this house and I

hear their prayers.

–Peg Edera, from “To Keep This House” in Love Is Deeper Than Distance