The Trackless Path

We need so little to be happy.

But you may not know that yet.

But it will come. Simplicity is on the rise.

It is claiming the world for Him,

Till only the foxes will have holes.

And then, the end.

You will never fully understand me 

While we are in this world.

And I can’t explain it to you.

I wish to God that I could.

But I am unable to explain it even to myself,

Though I know the wind that blows.

And my life has been a life upon the wind,

Blowing this way and that.

And I haven’t known anything 

Except that I am not my own,

And that I must go where the wind blows.

But one day, we’ll both go home.

We’ll travel north to the place 

From which the wind blows.

And there it will all make sense.

And we will rejoice in it together

When the truth is no longer hidden

By solid things that don’t make so much sense as the wind.

I am a traveling man, a traveling man. 

I never stay too long.

I take a job and leave it.

But when I stop, I hunker down

And search out long-forgotten friends,

Kindred, broken, torn-up, souls

The grown-ups leave behind

And they hang on by the tassels

To crumbs left for the dogs.

And I take down their stories

To tell the world about the ones

That chose the most unwanted roles

So that others could be the winners.

For someone has to lose in life.

Someone has to be the one 

That falls behind.

It’s an important part,

And there is much to learn

From being broken and despised.

But it is easy to forget.

And so I take notes.

I write it down

And then hold it up before the world 

In all its gruesome beauty.

A traveling man, a traveling man,

And I never stay too long.

I take a job. I write it down.

I tell the story. I leave the town.

And all because I’m a traveling man,

A traveling man, a traveling man.

It is good to receive things for free

Because we are freer with the things

That we don’t pay for,

And especially if we believe

That there will be more.

Think about it.

If you work all month at minimum wage

And then go out to eat and order fillet mignon,

And if you spend every spare dollar on that meal,

Then it is precious. 

You hover over the plate protectively.

You lose yourself in the experience

And every other person in the restaurant 

Disappears in the momentary bliss of that dish.

And heaven help the soul

That gets between you 

And your dearly bought succulence.

And yet, when the 18 wheeler 

Comes barrelling down the canyon

And turns over just in front of your house

And spills forth 20 pallets full of frozen choice cuts,

You call your friends 

And the town descends upon the pile

And your only joy is that it didn’t go to waste.

To need God is not a weakness.

Do the thing that you’re afraid of 

If you know that it is right,

And let the chips fall 

Where they will.

It’s better than the alternative.

When you live by faith,

You reap where you do not sow

Because you never know 

How you'll be paid

For sowing seeds

Where you will not reap.

Life is simple. They say that it is complicated, but they’re wrong.

I don't need anything.

It is all here with me already.

Be grateful for the future.

Do you know it?

It comes 

As surely as the past has flown.

And the truth of future things is whispered

To everyone who sacrifices present joys

For the sake of better tomorrows.