Re-Feeling

Re-Feeling

The word resent is from a late 16th-century French word resentir, the prefix re- expressing intensive force, and sentir, the Latin word for to feel.

Somewhere between truth

and the stories we tell ourselves

is memory

Memory has its way

of distorting what happened

into being better or worse

I have a habit of replaying

my life’s most painful moments

re-feeling the resentment

the injustice

For some things cannot be fixed

They can only be borne

and are improved 

only through gracious acceptance 

of the lessons each event contains

My mother taught me

to take a bite of any food

whether I like it or not

because fussing over what’s put in front of you 

not only insults the Maker

it is ungrateful

and guarantees insatiability

You are not a baby

putting everything into your mouth

You have learned the difference

between poison and nectar

parasite and ally

Most of life is lived

between these extremes

and yet 

it is no less vivid

Greet each moment 

for what it has to offer

and what it might require of you