There are two sides to every picture, the front and the back, looking out and looking in; the picture is seen differently from different perspectives.

I remember a time of waiting –
a time of frustration and of hope,
a time of planning and re-planning,
a time of not knowing.

I remember thinking, ‘What do I have to do?’
because we are not good at waiting,
not good at being,
prefer doing,
and I couldn’t see the picture
because I was in the picture.

Later, having stepped beyond that place,
I looked back at the picture
and saw a reason, an explanation,
a knowing.

Yet I was aware that others had looked at that picture
and seen something different;
they had seen only my frustration because that was what I lived.

Realisation of the hope came with the knowing,
although the realisation pointed to times of lightening,
times that had made the frustration bearable,
times when the light at the end of the tunnel seemed to grow brighter
only to find it was not the end of the tunnel but a light upon the way.

God, open our minds to the sense of knowing
in every picture of which we are a part.

Image: Mountains banner created by Lorraine Rich, USA