It’s Then

This is the thing about 
the unwanted passages 
that change us.

At first, the ambulance 
in our mind races for 
a way out.

But after the alarm fades,
we can see what’s broken, 
in us and around us. It’s 
then we stop trying to get 
back to what was before. 
That world is gone.

Then, in clumps, we leave 
our plans and grievances 
on the side of the road, to 
free our hands for what we 
need to get to tomorrow.
And we grow simple.

And as we crest the ridge
we didn’t know was there, 
we cry at the powerful 
beauty of it all.

It’s then that our inner
eye relaxes and we realize 
that the storm is just a 
tunnel of air tossing us 
into the Center of Life.

A Question to Walk With: 
In your journal or in conversation with a trusted friend or loved one, when all your problem-solving didn’t work. What did you turn to?

This poem is from my book of poems in progress, The Sacrament at the Center of Time.