Dear Catherine, this poem has been on my mind

Pack nothing.
Bring only your determination to serve
 and your willingness to be free.
Don’t wait for the bread to rise.

Take nourishment for the journey, but eat standing.

Be ready to move at a moment’s notice.
Do not hesitate to leave your old ways behind –
 fear, silence, submission.
Only surrender to the need of the time –
 love justice and walk humbly with your God.
Do not take time to explain to the neighbours.

Tell only a few trusted friends and family members.
Then begin quickly, before you have had time 
 
to sink back into old slavery.
Set out in the dark.
I will send fire to warm and encourage you.

I will be with you in the fire, and I will be with you in the cloud.
You will learn to eat new food
 
and find refuge in new places.
I will give you dreams in the desert 
 
to guide you safely to that place you have not yet seen.
The stories you tell one another around the fires in the dark

will make you strong and wise.
Outsiders will attack you, and some follow you
 
and at times you will get weary and turn on each other
 from fear, fatigue and blind forgetfulness.
You have been preparing for this
 
for hundreds of years.
I am sending you into the wilderness to make a new way 
 
and to learn my ways more deeply.
Some of you will be so changed by weathers and wanderings 
 
that even your closest friends will have to learn your features 
 
as though for the first time.

Some of you will not change at all.
Some will be abandoned by your dearest loves 
 
and misunderstood by those who have known you since birth 
 
who feel abandoned by you.
Some will find new friendships in unlikely faces, 
 
and old true friends as faithful and true 
 
as the pillar of God’s flame.
Sing songs as you go,
 
and hold close together.
You may at times grow confused 
 
and lose your way.
Continue to call each other by the names I’ve given you
 
to help remember who you are.
Touch each other,
 
and keep telling the stories.
Make maps as you go,
remembering the way back from before you were born.
So you will be only the first of many waves of deliverance on the desert seas.
It is the first of many beginnings –
 your Paschaltide.
Remain true to the mystery.

Pass on the whole story.
Do not go back.
I am with you now and I am waiting for you.


Alla Bozarth-Campbell