As day breaks

Will you say

Life was unfair

People were unkind

Hands were dealt that couldn’t be played?

Or, will you look deeply into the darkness

Of your own making and find

The true version of yourself that awaits you

If only you could trust

This shy stranger before you

Your now small version of yourself

Who knows its strength is greater than the chains that hold you now

Half-lit by the morning sun

It understands if nothing else

You must move on

If only to fall forward

Scraped and bleeding

Your life pulsing from your veins

Gather courage now

Take just one small step toward this shadowed stranger

Beckon it toward the light of your longing

And observe it receive your invitation

As it now steps toward you

Watch how the shadows it once held

Fade in the growing light

See now how it reaches its hands toward yours

Holding precious gems

The bursting color of marigolds in high summer

The iridescent rose-red of the breaking dawn

Of the soothing blue-green waters of the Aegean Sea

Take the outreached hands into yours

Accept the treasures it holds toward you as your own

Observe how each gem received catches the sun

As their kaleidoscope washes over you

It’s blessing

Breathe yourself back into your body now

Into the place of your belonging

Your re-birth into your one true life

1/23/2021