“When I Was the Forest” by Meister Eckhart (1260 – 1328)

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When I was the stream, 

when I was the forest, 

when I was still the field,

when I was every hoof, foot,
fin and wing, 

when I was the sky itself,

no one ever asked me did I have a purpose, 

no one ever wondered 

was there anything I might need,

for there was nothing
I could not love.

It was when I left 

all we once were that
the agony began, 

the fear and questions came,

and I wept, I wept. 

And tears I had never known before.

So I returned to the river, 

I returned to the mountains. 

I asked for their hand in marriage again,

I begged—I begged to wed every object
and creature,

and when they accepted,

God was ever present in my arms.

And He did not say,

“Where have you been?”

For then I knew my soul—every soul—

has always held Him.