Critical Moments of Trust
By John Herlihy

There are critical moments of trust that prevail,
To maintain the fine balance the world entails.
The trust of the day lies in the sun that will rise;
Night finds trust in the day that accepts its demise.
We trust that we will awaken from slumber,
To live on into the world’s mystical wonder.
We trust the globe will slay the winter solstice,
To turn away on a journey of return without notice.
The apple ripens and the hummingbird hovers, then flies;
The heavens peal in thunder, while the wind simply sighs.
The peacock cries lonely notes, the frog in its swamp croaks;
The squirrel gathers its winter nuts, the mockingbird jokes.
The whole of nature benevolently sheds its feelings of trust;
We recognize and accept this blessing as we know we must.

But imagine for a moment what would happen without such trust;
All of life would be reduced to chaos and we little more than dust.
We can only speculate what would then happen to the human race,
If God’s trust did not flow as a river thru us at its own unique pace.
Consider the stunning result if these moments of trust broke down:
The wood of the forest wouldn’t burn, nor fire scorch the ground.
There would be no kinship, no friendship, no gladness, no intimacy.
We would truly be on our own, a waterless well with no sympathy.
The spirit of the trust lost in the sweet innocence of a child’s eyes.
In lending everyone its simple trust, the infant shows itself as wise.
Icicles would mysteriously melt - drop by drop - in the winter cold;
All of life would take on a tedious eternity and never ever grow old.
The hand of God would be lifted and from our own hand withdrawn;
Our unspoken reliance on universal order would inexplicably be gone.

Let us not raise questions whose response is well nigh unanswerable;
Let us not ponder too deeply upon ideas that are truly unthinkable.
The spirit of the trust lives within us and will continue for another day;
The eternal bond between the Divine and the human has the final say.