Today for the first time
since I began attending
this small church
I noticed that the hawthorn trees
had reached high windows
where I used to see only sky
their magenta blossoms
now filling my view with color
and I knew that during
those same years listening to
the Lesson-Sermon in these pews
I had also reached heavenward
and grown
(though with many unfruitful branches
yet to prune)
into a higher more spiritual view.
