tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12431227.post-1128392957577512192005-10-03T22:28:00.000-04:002005-10-21T06:21:31.206-04:00<p><br />Whenever you are seen as knowing much, <br />Or having wisdom, smarts or expertise, <br />You run the risk of being filled with pride<br />And then the risk of ending up ignored.<br /><br />This is most true of those who would reform, <br />Whose brush is broad, who seek to change the world.<br /><br />Expectations of your past go forth, <br />And woe to you if you do not conform. <br />Reject the image people have of you, <br />And it were better you kept silence too.<br /><br />How many of us end up in exile?<br />We see ourselves as silenced. We retreat.<br />But look at things again. Be honest now.<br />What gave us cause to leave our audience? <br />What happened that led us to close the doors?<br /><br />Perhaps I judge too harshly, blind to pain. <br />Perhaps the door was really shut on you.<br />I merely say, Come, see the the cause again. <br />For if a cause is festering within, <br />The chances are your future is as well.<br /><br />Yes, exile often is a two way street, <br />created by ourselves and by events.<br />And even if rejected, it makes sense <br />To seek perspective on a frozen past.<br /><br />Do you subject the past to a broad curse? <br />Consign a stack of memories to flames? <br />Say you never will go home again? <br />Or hate the world you once sought to remake? <br /><br />Live high, aloof, alone, in bitterness? <br />Take angered solace in your solitude?<br />Excuse me if I disturb this high peace. <br />Would you allow Abba a simple word?<br /><br />"I've been within you, as I always am. <br />And you have never, ever been ignored. <br />I've been within you waiting for your nod, <br />So we can seek a nearer, better shore. <br /><br />"We can repair the bridges time has burned, <br />Or we can move along as we decide. <br />Just know your isolation is not real, <br />For you have had a friend from start to now."<br /><br />So what takes place when such soft words are heard?<br />You're free to choose, to reassess your time, <br />To do your history over, as it were, <br />To start again and set your course anew.<br /><br />This freedom never leaves, it is instant. <br />But open eyes and ears to who you are. <br />Stand tall in knowing you are not ignored. <br />Not by the eyes that count, the ears who hear. <br /><br />"I am in all, I link all in a chain, <br />Or circle or great gathering or throng. <br />I wait for you to be the who you are. <br />Not burdened by resentment, hate or pain."<br /><br />Ah, think of that when you end up alone. <br />For it is death we feel when we're ignored. <br />But, even then, in that most lonely place, <br />Reach out, look in, feel Abba's presence there.<br /><br />For even in the most lonesome valley, <br />I say to you, You shall not be ignored. <br />You shall walk hand in hand through death's shadow.Stephen C. Rosenoreply@blogger.com