Wednesday, January 30, 2019

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