Presence

What does it mean to be present?

To people, to self, to creation

To breathe in the air that surrounds you

To pulse to an echo’s vibration

What does it mean to be present?

To a touch, to a smell, to a feeling

To interlace hands with a lover

To gaze at the night’s starlit ceiling

Presence, I think, is a process

A process of entering in

A choice that affirms what has value

A chance to let something begin

Attempted alone, it is empty

But true in relationship form

Like dancers responding to music

Or flashes of light in a storm

For one to be present to something

She must take the mode of receiving

Ready to fully engage

To the one that her heart is perceiving

We too, can be humanly present

To crosses of true transformation

With hope to find presence eternal

In Love’s purest gift of salvation

-C. O'Connell-