In the slipstream of life, in the eyes of innocence, hope awaits us all on our wandering paths through life, writes Good Samaritan Sister Marie Casamento.

BY Marie Casamento SGS

Soft friable soil,
moist, rich, potent,
slips through knobbled, gnarled, arthritic fingers
of the octogenarian,
as he dreams of a ripe harvest,
imminent with spring.

A young new mother
caresses her newborn babe
close to her nurturing breast,
and waits.
A gentle flutter of eyelids
greets her in blue-eyed recognition.

Two small children run excitedly
back and forth, back and forth
gazing intently into the glass cabinet before them.
They stop, look longingly.
The sprinkle-topped bun winks back
into Dad’s eyes as they silently plead, “oh please!”

An old bent woman
potters in her spring garden,
delighting in the myriad of colours before her,
and the heady intoxication of the perfumed air filling her lungs.
A butterfly drops, flops, flitters and stops
amid the dahlia flamenco dancers that top the scene.

Seeds, all of these, on the slipstream of life:
the old man caressing the friable soil;
the newborn child catching the gaze of his adoring mother;
the scrambling stumbling young ones eager for a bun with sprinkles;
the old woman pausing awhile in her garden
to spy and catch an aqua butterfly dancing with the dahlias.

Seeds are these in the slipstream of life,
carrying forward in time
for all to catch a taste of
the never-ending promise of hope.
In the slipstream of life, in the eyes of innocence,
hope awaits us all on our wandering paths through life.