It’s always a little tough for me to let go of summer. Every year I feel a slight resistance, and every year that resistance eventually falls away and I open up to the beautiful transformation: the dazzling color and fresh, cool air that makes me feel so alive.
The Ladysmith Art Council sent out a poetry call for their Fall issue of their art magazine, with transformation as the theme. Two days before the submission deadline I wrote a poem and sent it in. I felt good. Not because I thought I had a winner, but because I’d been feeling like I was mired in a bit of a writing slump and for the first time in a long while I was experiencing a flow. It didn’t matter if my poem was chosen or not. I wrote!
As it turned out, my poem “Sticks and Stones” was one of several chosen. It made my day.
You can read all the poems here…click through the magazine until you reach the Poetry Corner.
There are so many moments in my life where I tend to resist change. Eventually, in my own time, I surrender. It’s not that I consider change to be a bad thing. In fact, I find it exciting to think there are new things on the horizon. I think it just takes some time for me to become comfortable with the transformation, that oftentimes bumpy path that’s leading me to that newness. I guess that’s just how I handle what I know to be true.
Life is transformation.
How do you navigate transformation and change? Let me know in the comments!
Photo Credit
Photo by Carol Good – all rights reserved
Hi Carol! 🙂
I always thought I was so cool with change. Or, maybe I was, and now in middle-age I’m just not cool about anything anymore. I also find it hard to let go – my kids are getting bigger and it breaks my heart. My parents become more white-haired and more unwell every year. My relationship is not what it was. I even read last night that the moon itself is wandering further and further away from the earth at a rate of 3cm per year. I sobbed. But what I’m coming to realize is that everything has a season, and to appreciate the season I’m in. Because it will all change. It always does. And every so often life changes for the better! Congratulations on your poem, I’m so excited to read it. You are a soulful person and I’m not surprised yours was selected. xoxo
I think you nailed it Colleen, reaching middle-age offers a different perspective on everything. Change didn’t seem so profound when I was younger. Now it seems to carry a melancholy edge, a wistfulness that was never there before. But I’m up for it, because I’ve come to the same conclusion: I need to let go and learn to appreciate the season I’m in. Thank you for your kind words and for sharing your thoughts…take good care xo