The Prayer of the Goat

Photography by Ann L. Krumrein

I've always liked goats. They're such frisky creatures, so full of pluck, and I see a bit of that in myself. They can live in mountainous and dry areas where other animals, such as cows, would not survive. That sounds like me, too -- not literally, of course, but my life circumstances and interior landscape are most of the time high and dry. I not only live there, I thrive there, thanks to our gracious and loving God!

Lord,
let me live as I will!
I need a little wild freedom,
a little giddiness of heart,
the strange taste of unknown flowers.
For whom else are Your mountains?
Your snow wind? These springs?
The sheep do not understand.
They graze and graze,
all of them, and always in the same direction
and then eternally
chew the cud of their insipid routine.
But I – I love to bound to the heart of all
Your marvels,
leap Your chasms,
and my mouth stuffed with intoxicating grasses,
quiver with an adventurer's delight
on the summit of the world!
Amen.

The Prayer of the Goat
by Carmen Bernons de Gasztold
from Prayers from the Ark