Lindy Thompson

When the Holy Spirit takes you for a ride,
she only grabs one hand.
She does not take both of your hands,
facing you,
and pull you to your destination on faltering feet.
She always leaves one of your hands free
and you get to decide what to do with it.

You can grab your things, all of them.
It makes you heavy, of course,
and makes being led feel more like being dragged,
but thankfully the Holy Spirit is patient
when all that stuff trips you up and causes delays.

You can clutch your past,
because it is Important,
but again, it will weigh you down
and keep you looking in the wrong direction.

You can give in to fear
and grasp a passing tree branch,
thereby hanging suspended in the air,
neither traveling nor standing in your former spot,
but stretched, prickling with apprehension,
the Holy Spirit looking back at you, smiling,
you clinging,
undecided.

Or,
you can let your hand remain empty, open,
and, unencumbered,
ride the flow of where you are going —
a child in the back seat,
hand feeling the strong breeze out the open window,
gazing at a flock of birds in the sky,
flying.