Prayer Like Birdwatching

We waited behind the bush, with no bated breath nor restlessness but the peace of wild things 
The lake 
The rocks 
The trees
The breeze

When suddenly, a kingfisher burst into view  
Red bright chest, blue wings 
A choir singing

Only slowly, after he had flown
Did the world resolve to flesh and bone and shapes
With shades again surrounding me,
My body once again around me, as sound resumed in the chambers of my ears
No fear except awe
No tears except those that are close to longing 

The world, somehow, was unaware and still, 
Nonchalant, as if no great thing had happened
And the water rippled as before
The world restored, as if it had not gone away, but stayed
The mud was not turned to gold nor stone to set our feet upon

I shook my head at the strangeness 
And I breathed in the freshened air, as if aware
Of the sweetness of which to sing, of life, 
Of being here and now

Then I said “Amen” and was done with prayer 
As if one could be done with the rising sun or moon
The call of geese coming home
The need for trees and spring

I opened my door to face the world, 
Knowing that things are not as they seem
And great things await possibility
Springing suddenly into view, amid the most mundane, like newborn mountains 
If we don’t grow faint with too much seeing
If we don’t forget that everything is miracle 
That everything invites believing