(At Andi Cumbo-Floyd’s Writers’ Retreat last weekend at God’s Whisper Farm, Kelly Hausknecht Chripczuk led us in several meditation times. For the first one, we gathered in a circle in the barn and were joined by Meander, one of Andi and Philip’s hound dogs.)

We sit in careful silence
He lies in easy silence
We consciously seek silence
He luxuriously lives it
We, in our noisy brightness,
Need to seek silence
He, in his restful brown-ness,
Seeks only us
And sunshine when it’s cold
Cool shade when it’s hot
And the occasional cucumber

We gather, facing each other,
To sit just inside the open barn door
Grateful to be here together
Stretching out –
Purposefully, effortfully –
Out to ourselves, the poem, the quiet
The possibility of stillness beyond words

He comes, uninvited but not unwelcome,
To lie just inside the open barn door
Grateful to be near us
Stretching out –
Easily, lazily –
Out to the grass, the tree, the sky
The possibility of cucumber in the garden