Late Spring Evening on the Porch

I am sure I shall see the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living.

                                                                                                       Psalm 26:1

They were on the porch, 

Simple as that,

Playing a game of Catan in the evening candlelight.

My three children, 

One in the beginning of his adult life,

The other two, teenagers.

Nothing out of the ordinary,

Just the three of them gathered 

Around a round table;

Their happiness

Going over the board of my heart

As I sat outside their game

Beyond the flames’ dice

As one who

Has gone with them

Over the decades 

Into the folds of this joy,
These pockets of madness,

This grieving,

This furrow

My heart steps have made

On this bramble path of love,

Breaking open,

Always

Breaking open.