Take it Now

“Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat.” – Robert Frost

In writing, I feel less can definitely be more. But for now, I’m not counting words. Whether you appreciate lyrical style or not, the ability to grab a big idea and hand it over in simple pieces is gold.

One basic caution that must be raised before self discovery can happen is that seizing today by the throat while disregarding the future comes at a cost. The choices we make, or don’t make, affect our tomorrow’s. That is why we cannot wait until the “right time” to work on ourselves. Some won’t be here tomorrow, and they will lose the option to care for themselves and love those around them a little while more.

I’m all about hope, but we can’t simply hope to feel better; we must do the work. Sometimes, we think it’s smart to wait out a life storm until the wind stops or the clouds clear. Unfortunately, there’s no hard guarantee they ever will. It’s smarter to push through the darkness rather than sit in the rain and wonder why we are still getting wet.

My parents are deceased. My sister said to me today that Mom and Dad would be proud of me this week, and that Dad would have forced me to use some of his original poetry in my blog. Smiling at how right she was, I composed these lines in his memory:

THE WELLNESS SEASON

I placed my hope at season’s end

early in the spring.

When winter fell I realized

hope was lost again.

If all the seasons

Were as one

Perhaps then hope could spring

In frozen hearts and barren parts

Of our identities.