Hello

I’d like to share this poem by Pádraig Ó Tuama. It can be found in his book, In the Shelter: Finding a Home in the World.

Neither I nor the poets I love found the keys to the kingdom…
and we cannot force God to stumble over us where we sit.
But I know that it’s a good idea to sit anyway.  So every morning I sit.
I kneel, waiting, making friends with the habit of listening, hoping
that I’m being listened to.  There, I greet God in my own disorder.
I say hello to distraction and privilege, I greet the day and I greet
my Beloved…I recognize and greet my burdens, my luck, my
controlled and uncontrolled story.  I greet my untold stories,
 my unfolding story, my unloved body, my own love, my own body.
 I greet the things I think will happen and say hello to everything
 I do not know about the day.  I greet my own small world and
 I hope that I can meet the bigger world that day.  I greet my
 story and hope I can forget my story during the day,
 and hope I can hear some stories, and greet some
 surprising stories during the long day ahead.
I greet God, and I greet the God who is more God than the God I greet.
Hello to you all, I say, as the sun rises above the chimneys
of North Belfast.

Hello…

– Pádraig Ó Tuama