When we were reading the Spiritual Exercises, the question of Fr. Carron, "What makes life worth living?" and the image of hanging by a thread caught my attention, returning often to my mind in the time that followed. Finally, I had to respond with a poem.

A THREAD

“Each of our lives is hanging by a thread. What makes life worth living?”--Julian Carron

What makes me human,
Is the 'I' deep within?

Pain, fire, cruelty, loss, fear, thunderous destruction.
The world on fire, hanging by a thread.

I forget who my 'I' is;
All have forgotten who 'We' are.

Cotton Mather's glimpse of the future,
we hang above the fire of the world.
Hanging by a thread.

The thread: Ah!
There is no 'I,' no 'We,'
Without You, the Other,
The Only,
The Thread of Being,
Of existence.

I, we, forgot.
we have reduced you:
A doll to grace a room rarely visited,
An old gardener to clean up the brambles
When we notice them,
A small wizard behind a screen and a microphone,
Powerless and unable to fulfill promises.

Meanwhile, a universe beyond comprehension
Hangs by a thread and is secure.
But not i, not we, no security, no remembrance
Of You.

“What makes life worth living?”
Nothing in this truncated existence
Without You.
You ARE existence.

I breathe out my forgetfulness, my reduction
Of You,
And suddenly,
In intimate Presence of Your gaze upon me,
Your breath on my face,
Your love permeating and immersing me,

There I am!

We are.

Your thread leads me surely to myself
And to a world of others,
A path opened in the sea
Of pain, fire, cruelty, loss, fear, thunderous destruction.
There is a promised land beyond,
If I, we, will but hang by the Thread.