On Being Loved

You've loved me in many ways, my God,
Now, after sixty summers I know your treats:
Tales a sunrise tells;
The easy silence of friendship;
And, in ultimate kindness,
Death's shattering of shells.

But your tricks, now:
How compassion is squeezed from the lemon of pain;
How many winters it takes a mind to wisdom;
How you seduce with one white rose,
Then spurn and trample and snub;
How your breath on the neck is hot and cold,
Nothing lukewarm;
How you knock politely for years,
Then suddenly tear down fences, gates and doors
To grasp the heart like a trophy.

Now that I'm old,
Mercy, Lord.
And do not change your ways,
I want your unexpected fierceness of love
To the end of my days.
                           Carol Bialock, RSCJ

Another of Carol's poems to reflect on today. We really had time at Oakwood to renew  our friendship as we were usually the first two at a window table for breakfast at 7:30 each day.
Carol arrived at the Academy of the Sacred Heart as a border in 1944 - I arrived at the same time but she was a senior and I was a freshman and only boarded at school four nights and had three at home each week which I found just a perfect way to go through the four years of high school. Then, Carol went to Maryville and I followed her there; both of us entered the Society of the Sacred Heart and were again together as novices. Then, many years later when I was head of the school in Chile, Carol came and we roomed together for a year as our school had to be built after the earthquake and we began it in our new location without the community part being finished. Even the classrooms had no doors or blackboards when we began school that year. Anyway, Carol gave me her poems and I am so happy to be able to share some of them with you for your reflection!