On the Gift of Rediscovery Within the Pain of Growth...

While it has been worth it to come to where I am now, it does not mean that there hasn’t been times of pain. Aching, sobbing, heartfelt pain. Occasionally it still comes now. A reminder that I am human. I allow myself to feel it, to wash over me, to process it and it naturally moves. On the other side is peace.

The poem below describes my last few years and was written while working with arts therapy on myself. I am sharing it as a reminder that it does take courage to grow, it does hurt, their will inevitably be pain… but when one can work with it, it does move… and there is the most brilliant light at the end of the tunnel. This is the human journey, and even in its times of apparent ‘ugliness’ it is somehow beautiful because it all ultimately brings us to rediscover our wondrous authentic and full self… we experience what it is truly and fully like to be human on this planet… the painful lows and the exuberantly joyful ups interspersed with the peace in between… and not this numbed out shell that so many people on this earth become trapped in (including where I once was).

A growing fracture
Becomes a divide
A valley too big to bridge
That fills with lava
Boiling, raging, hot and damaging
For both of us
It burns, does its damage
Leaving a brittle, fragile landscape
A barren nothingness
That demands escape… space, distance
So tears can begin
Gain momentum
And pour in for what once was
For a past of hopes and dreams
Ended, erased…
But painfully remembered
Until they can be released
Let go of
Cleansed
Flowing away
With me from this divide
Space created
A fresh slate
Awaits my writing
And exciting new beginnings unfold

Namaste
Joanne x

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