10th Anniversary Reflection by
Rev. Dr. Carrie Knowles
The Interfaith Peace Project

Going Through the Open Door

A Reflection for the Tenth Anniversary of the Interfaith Peace Project, Antioch, CA

When you go through an open door
into a house where you’ve never been before
there seems a hush like morning
where birds speak their syllables
yet leave the heart in quiet.

On such a day the incense rose
and welcomed in this stranger.
The terrace, green with trees
and bowing blossoms, spoke summer.
Sunlight poured in, the table whispered “come,”
and there was Presence all around
that has no name
and also many names.

Questions took shape with answers that surprised.
Hope stirred, wisdom ripened, voices long stilled
found melodies once wordless, words that called for song.
‘Selves, souls, truth, are safe here,’
spoke the silence of the Nameless One.

May all strangers find this open door
and hear the peace that sings
and breathe the speaking silence
and find their true voices rise
like incense curling in the morning sun.