Here, in my silence, the world expands
to include all its people – past,
present, and future – to make
sense of why I am and am not.
In the first atom that would boast
the promise of life, as in the atom
that would become death to
thousands of lives, lay our reason:
to become a changed thing.
No substance, animate or inanimate,
is untouched by time and season.
The cloud-capped stone peak is
reduced to gravel beneath my unsteady
foot as my path shifts at yet
another turn.
This changing landscape holds the
thrill and terror of the unknown.
We pale at its challenge or leap
with joyful wings into newness.
The steady tattoo of our heart
marches us, willing or not, into
another moment, another existence.
Here, in the breath each heart beat
gives me, my world stands still.
I accept myself as present, empowered
by the gift and freed by the beautiful
truth of now. And love gives my heart
its own reason: to be is enough.