prayer as a fulcrom

I wrote this during my two days of solitude/retreat last week. It is not one of my best but here it is. It was inspired by a phrase in Eugene Peterson's book Where Your Treasure Is: Psalms That Summon You from Self to Community

Prayer

The stone hefty and huge
immovable, inflexible, impenetrable
for centuries and generations
just there
people and nations
children, parents, and grandparents
all
seeking and striving to
move it, destroy it,
for it is...
obtrusive and intrusive
an impediment
to progress and production
committees formed
strategies laid
technologies invented
days, weeks, months, and years
have past
sweat, blood and tears
flowed like rivers
still...
immovable, inflexible, impenetrable
obtrusive and intrusive

one day a young boy comes upon this stone
he stands still
watching...
listening...
discerning...
awareness deepening...
simultaneously...
a group of men are laboring
muscles bulging,
perspiration profusely pouring
and the b o a r d is b e n d i n g
the men stretching and groaning
lifting and laboring
arguing and fighting
striving to catapult this stone
out of their way

amidst all the sweating, striving and strife
the boy sees...
a simple small stone
insignificant in comparison
to the obtuse obtrusion
he... quietly and unassumingly
sticks the simple, small, stone under the board
fashioning a fulcrum
silently slips

amidst pushing shoving, shouting
one man falls on the board –
the stone is lifted
SILENCE!!!!
suddenly the stone is removed
burdens are bursting
celebrations commence
progress promoted
enemies erased
all by a simple, small, silent
point of leverage