The Path

A path into the woods extends an invitation that no other option in my day offers. It beckons me to step inside a place that is outside. A place I walk alone. And the farther I venture, the less I hear the voices I've left behind. Now I am hearing leaves underfoot and branches bending under the tiny feather weight of a bird resting to investigate my passing. My steps persist and I am aware of the silence. In the silence my spirit quickens to the slightest movement. Soon I am noticing tiny changes. I hear breath where I had not known any life existed...until I walked the path.

That path is what prayer is like to me. It is an invitation to see life that I will not experience any other way. Having a conversation with God, I am soon hearing His voice instead of my own. I am going inside a place that is outside of myself. That slight movement is God's attentiveness. And those changes are the working of His Spirit on the one I for whom I am praying.

The temptation is to turn back. Voices are calling, there is work to be done. I stand on the edge of that path and unless I have fully entered, I will see no difference.