I recently attended a spiritual retreat at Iron Bell Ministries. It was exactly what I needed at this juncture of my life. It grieves me that silence and solitude, meditation, and prayer are not part of my regular and everyday activity.

---

I used to write poems, lyrics, short stories. But then life required me to redirect my brain cells to academic writing. The spiritual retreat revived my creative writing muscles. So here is a poem that I wrote during the first day of the retreat.

---

The sky is still blue

The sun is still shining

The dark clouds are just passing through

They all coexist in layers

Does one’s existence negate the reality of others?

The blue sky, the bright sun,

and the dark clouds exist by necessity

It reveals the levels of complexity

Somehow a simple paradox

To help you think outside the box

And still the paradox is very real

It is more than what you can merely feel

Reality takes over

The dark clouds still hover

And the memory of a blue sky

And the bright sun

Fade into oblivion

The clouds seem to be staying

Not moving; Permanent

Frustration

Remember that the sky is still blue

And the sun is still shining

This is true.