Walking With My Brother

written January 2, 1983

Because you’re here…
Because you fill so well my need for loving;
Because you provide that secure, stabilizing balance
I so desperately need;

And because my energy
Need no longer, thanks to you,
Be spent on finding one such as you,
I may now begin filling those other parts of me
Too obscure to see before you.

And if I should forget that
It is you who makes everything, everyone else, possible;
If I should ever be so busy as to be blind to your needs,
Please say so! Please let me know.

Please call me back from all those other places.
Make me see you above all other faces
Remind me, if it be necessary, that none of it would be true,
Except for you.

“After My Angel” Prayer:

Help me, Father, to know never to credit or burden any other human being with such power, when it is You…always and throughout my life…whom I should seek for my strength and my direction.
After literally falling in love with God, this poem — now a prayer — might go more like this:

Because You’re my Lord…
Because You are the source of my need to love;
Because only Your love can provide the saving grace
I so desperately need;

And because my energy
Need no longer, thanks to You,
Seek to know others apart from You,
I may now begin filling those empty parts of me,
Parts too obscure to see before I knew You.

And if I should forget that it is You, Father,
Who makes everything, everyone else, possible;
If I should ever be so busy as to be blind to Your grace,
Please let me know. Please call me back to You,
From all those other places.

Help me see Yours above all other faces and
Remind me, again and again,
That none of it would be true,
Except for You.