Footprints in the Dust

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 20 April 2011 10:14:57

Walking along this road

Kicking my feet along the dust

I notice the footsteps gone before

From people whose names I'll never know

And stories I will probably never hear.

I add my own imprint

To the dust

For others to follow

And disturb.

There are the footprints

Of saints and sinners

Of donkeys and men

Of women and children

Of the transgendered

The gay, the straight, the bi

And the simply not bothered.

The footprints of the single,

The married, the civilled, the divorced,

The engaged, the widowed and the seperated

Mingle together on this dusty road.

There are footprints from the furtile, and the childless

The adopted and the adopter

Pilgrims all on this dusty road.

Sometimes the travellers

Footprints have converged

In uncertain companionship

And conversations have ensued

Which have been stilted and difficult

As the different lifestyles and histories

Converge on this dusty path.

Yet they walk together

Aware that in their diversity

Their is a unity of purpose

And of hope

In an uncertain world

Where fear and darkness

Sometimes seem to dominate.

Their footprints in the dust

Follow crowds of days gone by.

Crowds which worshipped a king

And a mob which crucified an innocent man.

Contradiction and confusion

Are mixed into the dust

Marks of the way of welcome

and of the way of hesitant fear

Each generation rediscovering

The meaning of the dust

And the silent sacrifice

Of those who have travelled before.

Why should I be different?

Why should we expect it to be any easier?

Pilgrimage is not an easy journey

Ours is not an easy faith

We don't follow a man

Who took this path to Disneyland

We follow a deity

Who took it to the cross

So as I wipe my brow

And take a very deep breath

I look at the dust

I am wiping from my knees

And kicking from my shoes

As I plant more pilgrim

Footprints in the dust.