The leaves are for the healing of the nations

The Spirit gave up with a gentle whimper,

grown hoarse from too much whispering.

The wilderness was a big place for a lone voice,

and it took effort to keep calm and small and still.

So the Spirit stopped trying.

'Let them be deaf, and I shall be dumb', she said.

And do you know, the people didn't notice.

Not straight away.

Not today, or tomorrow.

But in time, in time and in due course,

the world grew colder,

less connected,

less alive.

And the voice no-one had heard was missed,

and the earthquake came,

and the loud winds blew,

and the fires raged.

And the Spirit was nowhere to be found.

Until one morning,

not long before the end,

a gentle wind stirred the leaves of the tree,

and fluttered the leaves of the book,

and everyone stopped.

And everyone noticed.

And the wind in the leaves was for the healing of the nations.