However the Spirit works in You

However the Spirit works in you,

work with that Spirit.

However the Spirit bears love in you,

let that love grow.

If beauty or friendship feed your joy,

bathe your heart in those things.

If words or silence nourish your peace,

give time to them to bless you.

If baseball makes you more patient

then play baseball.

Whatever nourishes the Spirit in you

practice, that it may bear fruit.

And whatever diminishes

your kindness or generosity,

whatever chokes your faithfulness,

or diverts your gentleness and self-control,

whatever assaults the Spirit and its life in you,

let go of those things.

If watching the news or working too long

drains your compassion,

then repent of those things

and pray that you find a way

to tend the Spirit in you,

whose fruit already is there within you,

whole and life-giving, quietly ripening.

--Steve Garnaas-Holmes.