The Breaking Wave

Dry Brush Painting of “Who Unrolls in Metered Roar”,
image created by Thomas Fideler using AI

In the epistle of James in the Bible, James states, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

This has not, in the past, been an admonition of which I was fond. But, over the years I have come to not only embrace trials and testing, but to love the outcomes.

THE BREAKING WAVE

Wave, oh wave upon breaking wave,
I know you well who unrolls in metered roar
And inscribes encrypted paragraphs of
Our lives upon this shore.

I know, in kind, what gives you birth
Out from the womb of tide and wind and storm,
To become in desolate places that give
Heart and soul and form.

Our eyes have met on breaking crest
And we have kissed between the rise and fall of swell;
Through night and pale and light of life
We have loved — I know you well.

^{Thomas Fideler}