Confessions of a Cowboy Christian and Practicing Buddhist

Beyond miles and miles of Sonoran and Chihuahuan desert

Criss-crossing the Southwest and Northern Mexico,

Where local folks know how to stand “tall in the saddle” as they say

Across a landscape that seems to go nigh on to forever

Even beyond the Boundlessness of you, O’ God,

Here imaginations may touch the beauty of all creation

And horizons meet the very edge of eternity.

Here you may see from Terlingua to Tuscon,

Marfa to Manhattan, Edna to El Paso

Across vistas of high desert plains,

Mountains, valleys, arroyos,

Streams and rivers merging together.

Where fingers of saguaro cactus

Point upwards in prayer,

While honey and velvet mesquite,

White-thorn acacia,

Althorn, ocotillo, lechugilla,

Agave and creosote bush

Bow with grace when touch by the breath of God

Traveling on windblown currents.

O Lord, let such a landscape echo back through each of us,

Expanding our sight, to become a vision

That comes to see heaven reflected

Through your divine made eyes.

May such a vision arise in us each

As it did for Christ and the Buddha

To echo, again and again

As we view heaven

Through divine made eyes.

Ron Starbuck