All of This Am I

I finished NaNo just in time for Thanksgiving. I am excited to begin the rewrite process. However, before doing that, I am catching up on cleaning house, ignored correspondence, reading all of your wonderful blogs and myriad other things I let slide for the month.

I hope you all have a beautiful Thanksgiving Day! I am thankful for each and every one of you and cherish the friendship you offer.

Here is a little poem for your Turkey Day enjoyment!


All of This I am

Who am I?
I asked the wind.
It blew and blew and blew...
and then
on a cloudless day I asked the sky -
please, please tell me
Who am I?

The sun set and
day melted to night
I looked up to ask the stars
Who am I?

I asked the trees, I asked the earth.
Surely, somewhere I could find my worth.

I listened to the snow softly kissing the ground.
I listened to wild animals all around.

Then one day in a lake mirror smooth,
I saw my reflection and somehow I knew...

I am the wind, I am the sky
I am the stars, the trees am I
I am the snow softly kissing the ground
I am the wild animals all around.

There exists no boundary where I end
and where everything else begins.

I take a deep breath flinging my arms wide
so thankful to know -
All of This am I.

The Wind

Trees bend their weight with the wind.
It pauses...they straighten and then
they bend and bend and bend
never knowing when it will end
or when the wind will come again.

I wrote this poem after the really strong winds we had last night. I was sitting and looking out the window at the trees. After it was written, I realized that it is an allegory for how I feel about my chronic pain and illness. The pain is what it is and will be with me until it isn’t any longer. I have managed to delink the pain from suffering. It is possible to have joy alongside pain.