Breathing Under Water

I built my house by the sea.
Not on the sands, mind you; 
not on the shifting sand. 
And I built it of rock. 
A strong house by a strong sea. 
And we got well acquainted, the sea and I.
Good neighbours.
Not that we spoke much. 
We met in silences. 
Respectful, keeping our distance, 
but looking our thoughts across the fence of sand. 
Always, the fence of sand our barrier, 
always, the sand between. 


And then one day, —and I still don’t know how it happened— the sea came. 
Without warning. 
Without welcome, even 
Not sudden and swift, 
but a shifting across the sand like wine, 
less like the flow of water than the flow of blood. 
Slow, but coming. 
Slow, but flowing l


By Richard Rohr, quoted on fb by Aggie Mitchkoski