WHEN I WAS THE STREAM
When I was the stream, when I was the forest,
when I was still the field, when I was every hoof,
foot, fin, and wing, when I was the sky itself,
No one ever asked me did I have a purpose,
no one ever wondered was there anything I might need . . .
for there was nothing I could not love.
It was when I left all we once were that the agony began,
and the fear and questions came and I wept. I wept.
And tears I had never known before.
So I returned to the river. I returned to the mountains.
I asked for their hand in marriage again. I begged––I begged
to wed every object and creature.
And when they accepted,
God was ever present in my arms.
Meister Eckhart
(1260-1328)
