restless

restless

it’s sunny and beautiful today

but still windy enough

to keep us in the marina

and there’s not much I need to do

I love the leisure

but it also makes me restless

feels like it must be

time to go home

but then what would I be doing there

that’s more important than being here?

I’d have better phone and internet connections

but to whom, and for what, I’m not sure

I could shop

I could see people

I could get my hair cut

I could garden or redecorate

I could start into the photo album project

or the book of poetry.

and some, or even most of that, is appealing

but so is the unfilled quiet of this place

the freedom of living without plans

the slow pace and simple rhythms

of life on a boat

maybe the restlessness

is itself a gift…

now there’s some food for thought!

maybe it provokes the kind of questions

that would otherwise stay hidden

beneath the surfaces of an ordered life…

questions like, what’s really worth doing?

or what gives a life purpose, value?

I’ll get to do all those other things

in their own good time,

but for now I’m here with an invitation

to unpack the rarer gifts

of a restless season —

I wonder if I’m up to the task

wednesday 8 march

lent 2017

Penns Landing