Embracing

As 2024 draws to a close, we take stock, embracing and allowing ourselves to feel. To feel life, to feel the journey we’ve embarked on thus far. Only then, can we live presently. And gratefully. Happiness is not about feeling joyful all the time. Happiness is being able to bounce back, responding humorously and allowing space for whatever that arises and finding grace. This poem seems apt to close the year with. Thank you all for your kind attention in the past five years of Wednesday Pause.

Sea Rock, by Elizabeth English

We sail a long time

Before reaching the rock,

Jagged and uninviting,

Grey sea and spume, which lashes

And sucks at granite edges,

Many thousands of years until smooth.

And here we are at last,

Against the odds,

Against currents and winds

And the pain of it all;

Straining against the elements,

Forced back for hours on end, way off course,

Many thousands of minutes

Until we feel what needs to be felt,

In the ocean of our lives.

Guide: Noelle Lim

Image credit: Christopher Rue, Unsplash