What do we do when the winds of change
come crashing through our lives,
knocking paintings
and beloved items from their place,
and leaving us with an aching uncertainty
about what could possibly be the way forward?

Do we choose what’s sensible?
Or do we throw sense out onto the wind,
to be tumbled and swung about like our transforming lives?
There’s no easy answer.

Our hearts will be weary
from the thousand losses of this transition,
as the things, people, and dreams we were so certain of
are swept away from us,
leaving us confused and angry…
do we have control of anything?

The answer is, no—we don’t.
Even the person who marches down her path
has no idea what could happen next.
Each change, each disappointment,
is a reminder to become child-like again,
to hold our lives like a butterfly perched in our palms,
precious and never really belonging to us.

We will soon begin to cry, “Thank you!”
as another piece of us is taken away;
we will begin to welcome the empty space,
and breathe into the freshness of not-knowing.

There is a certain magic in surrender,
that, at least, we can know.

~

Author: Anthea van den Bergh
Image: Pauli Mapi/Deviant Art     
Editor: Lieselle Davidson
Copy Editor: Yoli Ramazzina