Beside the River

    Reed often refers to me as a lady of leisure, and he is right. Not only did I retire early, but I live on Leisure Drive. (In Billings, we lived on Easy Street.) As if living on a road named Leisure was not enough, our house is just a bridge away from Leisure Island Park. When there were only twenty houses on Leisure Drive, it was practically my private paradise. But even now with the addition of two subdivisions in our area, once tourist season ends and school starts, the banks of the Stillwater River again become my private place to think and pray. And with what is going on in the world, plus the election in our own country, there is a great need for both.

Beside the River

This peaceful river does not know

as its placid waters flow,

of the turmoil in our land

coming from both God and man.

I can sit in stillness here

where mind and water both grow clear

one with nature and with God.

Here beside the river bank

with only God to hear, and thank,

I’m free from talk of us and them,

no virus, masks, riot mayhem

no campaign ads, no TV news

no trashing those with other views

only the water, land and sky.

The One who made the Earth and sky

is sovereign over you and I,

and all the things that shake us now

will bring about His will somehow.

When life feels beyond God’s control,

I come to Him and rest my soul

where love flows like a river.