At 5:00 a.m., I’m out to walk and pray,
I squint in darkness as my eyes adjust,
But squinting doesn’t sweep the black away,
My feet on sidewalk, all I can entrust.
Suburban streets with over-watered lawns,
Remind me of my quenchless thirst for God,
What the world offers is the greatest con,
Like yards laid out with costly Bluegrass sod.
If even in the suburbs, God is found,
Can Costco crowds be truly born again?
I question if I walk on hallowed ground,
Doubting God’s mercy, skeptical, but then,
A sprinkler sprays me squarely in the face,
Reminding me of God’s all-present grace
Tim Bete is a Discalced Carmelite Secular and a member of the Community of Our Mother of Good Counsel in Beavercreek, Ohio, where he has served as a Formator, on Council, and as President. His writing has appeared in media outlets and anthologies, including Amazing Grace for the Catholic Heart, Catholic Philly, Catholic Exchange, Integrated Catholic Life, Presence: A Journal of Catholic Poetry, Apostolate of the Little Flower magazine, and The Carmel Clarion. He served on the faculty at the Catholic Imagination Conference and appears on the Carmelite Conversations Podcast, which he also helps produce. Tim has published four books, including The Raw Stillness of Heaven and Wanderings of an Ordinary Pilgrim. You can contact him at http://www.TimBete.net.