Two Decades

Twenty One Years                    4/28/2017

Things were different then

And I lived with an urgent intensity

And everything I felt and saw

Was exciting, vivid, and raw. 

The highs and the lows

Tossed me about

As if a stormy sea

And I felt ever swell

Sweet and salty.

But with time

Things change

And if we are lucky

We grow to understand

Discerning wisdom

From recklessness and fear. 

I didn’t know

And I hadn’t learned

The value of patience

And the power of prayer.

Unaware of the perfection

That sometimes means

Saying nothing at all

Listening rather than speaking

And accepting

What we can’t control.

With time and distance

We can examine the scars

And see from the burns

Where we flew too high.

It is then we begin

The journey

Of the long night of the soul

And see stimuli, perception

And reaction. 

Some times

We make mistakes

And sometimes

Others do as well. 

But how we take it

Looms ever larger

That what is done

Or said. 

As we become

Ever more mindful

Of all possible perspectives

And limitless potentialities. 

That is the victory

The day we turn it over

Taking all the pain

And flipping it over!