The Tie That Binds

by Rick Hempy

I feel somewhat remiss as a contributor. I assure
you all, I have been reading the heart-felt sentiments of my fellow contributors. What a diverse and talented group I am honored to call my friends.

I have a sense that there is something at play here that brings us together again, and in at least one case, again and again. Beyond the technology, which in it's self is no small miracle, there seems to be a relevance to this connection. Can't quite put my finger on it, but I know it feels right.

I call myself a musician, and a songwriter. I wrote something a few years ago for someone I call my muse - someone who inspires me. I had not thought about the song for quite some time, but it came to mind as I read what you, my friends have written. So this is for you - you inspire me:

I found a rose in a garden

left unattended

In all God's creation

it was a thing to behold

There in the quiet,

without witness,

how it had flourished,

how it had grown

And a single ray of sunlight

danced upon the petals,

watered by a teardrop

fallen straight from God's eye

I wondered at the solitude

of it's perfection,

and how that rose had come to grow

in the garden of my life.

Though the briars and the clinging vines

tried to choke the flower,

it refused all subjugation

and reached for the sky.

There in the quiet

I bore witness

to how that rose had touched my soul

and how it changed my life

I found a rose in a garden

left unattended.