Awake Our Hearts is a gentle, beautiful online literary publication for the female voice exploring faith and life in full.  Please enjoy my short piece, Mountain Metaphor, in the Fall issue.  

Jesus.
The name grates.
Like a stone in your shoe.  Or a speck in your eye.
Its presence can’t be ignored.
 
Jesus.
The name pulses with electricity.
Like the name of your first love.  Or your bitterest enemy.
It pulls.  It repels.
And you react.
 
Jesus.
The name is everywhere.
In every birth, every sunset, every cyclone –
   it is the heartbeat of the earth.
It will not, cannot go away.
 
Jesus.
The name probes.
A laser into your thoughts,
    it disturbs your comfort, shatters your independence.
It intrudes.
 
Jesus.
The name of love,
    with love’s passion, pain and promise.
It draws you.  It pursues you.  It calls you --
    to a choice.
 
© Leslie McLeod, 1999

If.  
Two letters. 
One powerful word.
If wounds with regret. 
If only I hadn’t.
If only I had. 
Taunting specter.    
The keening ache of yesterday’s if.  

If boasts. 
Constant.  Confident.  
Arrogant, almost. 
If, then. 
Reap, sow.
If struts in tall boots, certain of today. 

But what if?      
Peering beyond,   
If quivers with hope,
A golden aspen leaf, ready to fall.
If I am not, am I still?  
If it is true, will I believe? 
A whispered answer beckons,
Overcoming  if’s last doubt.    

© Leslie McLeod 2018