Jesus was led by the Spirit
in the wilderness,
where for forty days he was tempted.
—Luke 4.1-2
We water our desires like a garden,
they become a forest, we are lost in them.
We desire and we take.
So we leave the lush place where everything is given,
for the sparse land where everything is questioned.
We go alone with him
to that most alone place,
the empty place,
among the bones of our desire.
Everything exposed,
bare rock, long views, no cover.
And we live.
At that margin we finally come
to the center,
nothing but soul and flesh,
the creature that endures,
the solitude in which we are not alone,
the spring that wells up within,
that everything else obscures.
Coming back, our eyes are open.
Returning to the city’s deserts
we know to dip from the the spring
flowing out.
—March 8, 2019