Road to Wholeness

Babies, children

They come in whole

Then with life, the breaking apart, the disintegration happens

Then some, not all, attempt wholeness again

Not all make it

Some don’t try because their hearts didn’t break that much

They are happy with a few fine cracks

They know it is okay not to be perfect

It is the ones so smashed

So abandoned and lost

They make a choice

Once the choice is made

To live and live well

The road is long, hard, and sensitive

There are profound jewels along the way

The love they find is shareable

It heals others

The act of sharing heals the Self

Everyday we make it closer to our completeness

Everyday we cry for loss

For pain

Everyday I pray for the feeling of taking a first step

As a child

Of appreciating a flower

Of feeling enclosed in a complete love

Being curled in a divine mother’s arms

Safe and kind

This gets me through

This will never go away

This keeps me safe

and kind

By Michele Angelica

Poem inspired while reading Thomas Merton’s “When The Trees Say Nothing.” As I sat on a park bench, I watched a mother help her child take his first steps.