On Being Ignored

Whenever you are seen as knowing much,
Or having wisdom, smarts or expertise,
You run the risk of being filled with pride
And then the risk of ending up ignored.

This is most true of those who would reform,
Whose brush is broad, who seek to change the world.

Expectations of your past go forth,
And woe to you if you do not conform.
Reject the image people have of you,
And it were better you kept silence too.

How many of us end up in exile?
We see ourselves as silenced. We retreat.
But look at things again. Be honest now.
What gave us cause to leave our audience?
What happened that led us to close the doors?

Perhaps I judge too harshly, blind to pain.
Perhaps the door was really shut on you.
I merely say, Come, see the the cause again.
For if a cause is festering within,
The chances are your future is as well.

Yes, exile often is a two way street,
created by ourselves and by events.
And even if rejected, it makes sense
To seek perspective on a frozen past.

Do you subject the past to a broad curse?
Consign a stack of memories to flames?
Say you never will go home again?
Or hate the world you once sought to remake?

Live high, aloof, alone, in bitterness?
Take angered solace in your solitude?
Excuse me if I disturb this high peace.
Would you allow Abba a simple word?

"I've been within you, as I always am.
And you have never, ever been ignored.
I've been within you waiting for your nod,
So we can seek a nearer, better shore.

"We can repair the bridges time has burned,
Or we can move along as we decide.
Just know your isolation is not real,
For you have had a friend from start to now."

So what takes place when such soft words are heard?
You're free to choose, to reassess your time,
To do your history over, as it were,
To start again and set your course anew.

This freedom never leaves, it is instant.
But open eyes and ears to who you are.
Stand tall in knowing you are not ignored.
Not by the eyes that count, the ears who hear.

"I am in all, I link all in a chain,
Or circle or great gathering or throng.
I wait for you to be the who you are.
Not burdened by resentment, hate or pain."

Ah, think of that when you end up alone.
For it is death we feel when we're ignored.
But, even then, in that most lonely place,
Reach out, look in, feel Abba's presence there.

For even in the most lonesome valley,
I say to you, You shall not be ignored.
You shall walk hand in hand through death's shadow.