I ask for his hand
He holds on tight
A curve is coming
It might mean a fight
But we stand together
Hand in hand, we’re one
We won’t be separated
We can’t be undone
©Mary Grace van der Kroef 2020
Sharp edges
Multicolored pores
Showing off scars
Human endeavors
Broken stones
Blasted wide
Essence laid bare
In cascading lines
Painting a mural
History past
Our earth bleeds colours
Painting murals that last
©Mary Grace van der Kroef 2020
We have learned to fear silence.
The loneliness, the lack of progress.
When we learn to stop our chatter, pause our industry, we will hear what lays underneath what we fear.
The beat of our hearts, the breath of life, the creaking of growth, the groaning of decay.
When we sit with that thing, we fear, we learn what life really is.
In the learning we find new ways to sing and build around silence.
©2022 Mary Grace van der Kroef
Photo sourced from unsplash.com
The fall to earth is never strait, or predictable.
For a while they hold fast, grow, preparing for the fall. A fall that’s inevitable.
We all fall.
I pray when I finally land, others will say I fell with grace.
And when I rest, it will be in fertile soil, in which to spread new roots.
©2022 Mary Grace van der Kroef
Photo sourced from unsplash.com
Young, still growing, still learning, still gaining strength. We call it a bud, but it is still a flower.
It guards itself until the day God whispers reaches it though natures script.
“Its time.”
Then, petal by petal, it opens. I wonder…
Does it hurt? Is there relief? Are there such things as introverted or extroverted flowers? Either way, we wait in anticipation for them to be ready.
People are a lot like buds…
Are you ready? Even if you’re not, you are still beautiful.
©2022 Mary Grace van der Kroef
Photo Sourced from unspalsh.com
Nothing gets done unless someone is willing to get their hands dirty.
In the western cultures we admire cleanliness, and the modern way of life. But underneath the white walls, and pavement, is the evidence of people who wheren’t afraid of a bit of dirt.
Art making is no different.
We paint, we sculpt, we gather, and glue. A writer creates a ‘dirty draft’ before shaving away exes prose and blowing the fragments into the waste bin at the back of the mind.
We can not remove the muck of ‘making’ from life.
It might be dirty, but it’s beautiful.
I, for one, am thankful that God himself was not afraid of the dirty work of making.
©2022 Mary Grace van der Kroeft
Photo sourced from unsplash.com
Tonight I gather,
picking fruits from other’s words.
Gleaning,
as I watch, wait, and learn.
Picking of experience
to stow,
safe in pockets.
Like berries on a bush,
tiniest of fruits.
Some are bitter, some are sweet,
all with bursting flavors greet.
Many is the harvest if
one will glean
the moment’s gift.
©2022 Mary Grace van der Kroef
There are special people in this world that thrive in the background. Do you know one?
They know how to work with their hands and make things happen.
Or say just the right things to light up the darkness before melting back in to the shadows.
Are YOU one of them?
If you are… Thank you.
©2022 Mary Grace van der Kroef
I am privileged
To watch youth fade.
I am blessed,
To count the whispers of gray
That wave.
May I be privileged
To taste the wisdom on temples,
Hold the gentleness
Of fingers,
Love the layers of years
Within you.
©2022 Mary Grace van der Kroef
Do you have an arrow you follow? A compass? Something that guides you when you lose sight of land?
We all do, whether or not we realise it.
Sometimes, the guides that we follow are not very clear. Or, their arrows are not true and it’s difficult to discern if we are heading the right way.
How do we know if our guiding arrows are trustworthy? Have you ever had to find a new one?
I have.
Now, my compass is the Holy Bible. What is yours?
©2022 Mary Grace van der Kroef
Photo sourced from unsplash.com
Mary Grace Writing 