“Who Has Seen the Wind”  

Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.

Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.

-Christina Rossetti 

My nieces and nephews, at one time or another, have asked me if God is real, since you can’t see Him. I love to use the metaphors of wind with them, but I am never as eloquent as Christina Rossetti, who the Church honors today. 

I love poetry - the most perfectly distilled writing about the human experience. It is like a hand reaching out from history to say, “I know what you’re going through, as I’ve been there as well.” Poems are alive with imagery that changes as we have new life experiences, and they transform the more times we read them.  

When I read this poem, sometimes I feel like I am the leaf, hanging tenuously to my composure, my patience, and/or my faith. Sometimes I feel like I’m the tree, going with the flow, acknowledging the changes around me with grace and stability. More times than I care to admit, though, I forget that the important part is the wind, not me.  

-Geoffrey Philabaum, Meditation

Musical Reflection - Bach - Sinfonia from Cantata BWV 29 | Netherlands Bach Society

“My life is like a broken bowl, 

A broken bowl that cannot hold 

One drop of water for my soul 

Or cordial in the searching cold; 

Cast in the fire the perished thing; 

Melt and remould it, till it be 

A royal cup for Him, my King: 

O Jesus, drink of me.” Amen.

From Christina Rossetti’s “A Better Resurrection”