What If...

This week in my Shelter Writers Workshops I used a simple prompt for us, What if…?

I was reminded how much churning is going on inside us all at any given moment, as each writer nodded, laughed, or groaned and then quickly switched off their video to begin writing. Apparently it doesn’t take much for our brains to imagine the worst, the ideal, the might have beens.

A few years ago I was seeing a spiritual director who asked really wonderful questions. I think maybe that is the main job of great guides of the heart and mind: to ask great questions. Anyway, I was agonizing over my lack of trust, my lack of faith. She said to me something I will never forget: “I see that you have a great imagination… What if you imagined what it would be like to trust?”

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What if the Worst Doesn’t Happen

and our earthquake supply stash collects dust
while our feet learn things like dancing and our hands
learn things like chopping onions for soup

What if I allow myself happiness
without leaving the backdoor open
to the whispering thief of Guilt

What if the invitation to begin again
sounds surprisingly like my Grandma Bev
93 years old, still missing her husband of 61 years
yet throwing her head back laughing
with her boyfriend of the last 8

Change doesn’t only mean loss
it might also mean forgiveness and
grace circling in from all directions
an “I’m sorry” from yesterdays lips extending
into the open sky of today while
the earth takes a deep inhale breath
which is the future reaching back to the now
and whispering gently,
give in to joy

-Alli Rogers Dahlgren