Things cannot make you happy
They can only make you excited
And excitement always fades

Water spilled to streams of yore
Flowing down from the mountain wastes
Before the forests bore their first fruit
Or the stars illuminated their first night
From the deepening darkness
Sprang forth living water

The water flowed and pooled
Stretching out and gathering
From the four corners of the earth
To meet together in the distant east
A place now lost beyond our world
Wherein a great garden was planted

And where our ancestors were born
By the living water and the earth
Made of simple clay, of mud and dust
Yet imbued with a great power
A unity with their creator
That they may walk with Him

Side by side

The old stonework is as solid as it has ever been
Though cracks can now be seen
And chipping at the edges
Before, I looked up at this grand cathedral
In awe and wonder of its architecture
Its grand spires and arched doorways
Though now I look beyond it
West, to the rolling hills and meadows
The wind swept woods and quiet streams
Amid the fox dens and bird nests
There I long to rest; to close my eyes and dream
Until evening begins to fall and golden light gently slips
Between the leaves and branches of the canopy above
When the sky is is bathed in royal purple
Then will I awake and return to my home in peace

Be still for a moment
Listen for an hour
Calm yourself
Commune with your heart
Release your fear and doubt
Your anxiety and pain
Spend time seeking
Spend time waiting
Wait upon the Lord
Be still and know
That He is God
Receive His peace
The joy of his Spirit
And His love everlasting

Lay still beneath the swaying leaves
The gentle green and awning eves
Late evening sun to slip away
From purple gold to silver grey
Stay with me here as twilight falls
And shadows grow along the walls
Ivy covered and of ancient stone
Long centuries has this garden grown
It will be here still when we awake
When sleep has left and dawn does break

No thought given
No message received
The great forests we know
Once oceans and seas
The deserts and wastes
Once tropical green
A cycle unending
Or so it would seem
But indeed it will end
And ends as we speak
For the thin veil is lifted
The sign we did seek
A potent sign hidden
Not without but within
The morning star rising
The end of all sin
A light now forming
And when it is done
We will be how we were
As when it had begun

To the northeast and beyond
On the very edges of the glistening shores
A shattered forest of stump and splinter
Cracked and smoldering, as if for all time
Yet that disastrous event which stripped the land
Has yet to ever occur


There is no record of wildfire
No meteor shower from the summer night sky
No overturned lantern or lightning strike
Nothing has ever happened here
For as long as things have been recorded
And our generations have run


But still the forest smokes
The ground tucked in below a blanket of ash
The few remaining trees are sickly and charred
Yet never do they fall or die
And never do new trees sprout
Despite the fertile ground rich in minerals


No it was not long ago
That the forest burned and the earth was scarred
Nor was it recently so
We know truly that it was ages from now
In an unspeakable sector of posterity
A forgotten year that is yet to be


In the far distant future this forest burns
And the land is laid bare before us
The event echoes back to us
A warning a premonition
Of dread and fearful things to come
But alas it is only a premonition