CATHY WARNER
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The Difficult Gifts

12/13/2017

2 Comments

 
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Oh life, you give me too much
opportunity to receive your difficult gifts.
 
You ask me to let go of my desires, my
expectations, my wants, my will--
the my, my, my that drives me
to distraction, anxiety, fear.
 
You ask me to practice seeing
the present apart and aside
from my wish to craft existence
into something easy
and comfortable
the recliner and slippers
I would opt for over
this narrow path
these sharp stones
that cut and bleed.

And life, practicing the art
of accompaniment seems never
ending as I stumble in descent
alongside those I hold dearest
through dark canyons. We long
for illumination and the river coursing
the valley floor where we might
drink of life. Instead we travel
through fractured families and ailing
health down through loss of job
and identity, mental faculties and sense of self
down amid despair and death.
Hands skimming striated walls, we are
dwarfed by enormity
as we touch the long history of the world
and our very small places in it.

Oh life, accepting what is, along with our
insignificance is such a difficult task.
Difficult too, to give thanks
in every circumstance,
to love the fleeting and fragile.
More difficult still to cling
to nothing but this moment
to find hope and peace in breath
alone—And so life, we must
practice again and again the art
of embracing your difficult gifts.
2 Comments
Kate Cope
12/13/2017 04:10:10 pm

Very nice! I like this a lot. One of my favorite quotes is by Richard Bach and he says "There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. We seek problems because we need their gifts." I don't know why but this really resonates with me. I have embraced my lessons this year & pray next years will be a bit easier!! Hope yours will be too!

Reply
Anne Schlesinger
1/3/2018 10:32:33 am

Oh, Cathy. I don't want some of the difficult gifts. 2017 offered the most difficult gift I have ever known--this resonates with me more now than ever. Thanks you.

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    I began blogging about "This or Something Better" in 2011 when my husband and I were discerning what came next in our lives, which turned out to be relocating to Puget Sound from our Native California. My older posts can be found here.

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