"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly." ~Richard Bach

Those of us who are lucky experience the complete unraveling of our lives. A life turned upside down creates the opportunity for radical change. Whether it's a divorce, death of a loved one, sudden poverty, or life changing illness, we may find ourselves forced to reevaluate identity, meaning, reality.

Corneal dystrophy has been the empowering experience of my life. I lost access to visual beauty, but discovered that we swim in a sea of unnoticed yet exquisitely beautiful sounds, textures, smells, and motion. The disease was crushingly cruel and my organ donor gave me the purest form of unconditional kindness. I lost the illusion of control, and tasted serenity and freedom. I gave up the future I had planned, and experienced the richness of the present moment.

Life became an infinite playground- with a little help from Lao Tsu.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Surrender


When I surrender to winter

We are both surprised.

In the quiet absence of resistance,

she looks me in the eye.

And I look into hers.

No more energy wasted wishing she were spring.

I welcome her with all my senses, tasting and smelling the cold.

She wraps me in her clean white blanket arms.

Our hearts open. I see how beautiful she is

and she invites me to play in the snow.


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1 comment:

  1. UnknownMarch 30, 2010 at 4:33 AM

    Hi Hannorah (alias NanaB)

    Beautiful poetry... stunning photos...
    It's great that you're sharing these with the world...

    ReplyDelete

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