Hi all,
I wanted to share a poem that I wrote last week. Hope you find something of value.
Colorful Again
Medellin, Aug 2023
Someone told me
that the silver lining
was not worth the burden
of the dark cloud
that it surrounds.
But then, is the rainbow
not worth the storm
that precedes it?
Sometimes life is hard,
and we must go through it
in order to see
the beauty on the other end.
What do you get when
reason and emotion
collide?
Pain, struggle, blurry vision,
disappointment, frustration.
But what can we do to
find alignment?
find clarity?
find peace?
find ourselves?
find our next steps and
create the new chapter of
ups and downs?
Because there will always be
peaks and valleys…
Because perfect doesn’t exist.
Ideals are illusions
that we like to pretend
can be real.
But reality is not
a primary color.
Reality is the mixing and blending,
the combining of neighboring shades.
Reality is chartreuse,
neither green, nor yellow –
yet – somehow both,
but either way, a perfect color.
It’s already perfect –
life is as perfect as chartreuse.
It is already beautiful.
No one asks for illness.
No one asks for loss.
No one asks for heartbreak
or pain or struggle or
financial challenges…
No one asks for addiction
or war or famine or
poverty…
No one asks for life altering injury
or to be an orphan.
No one asked to be brought
to Auschwitz or to get COVID,
or to lose everything in a fire or
natural disaster.
No one asked to lose their job.
No one asked to be born into
the circumstances in which
they were born.
Yet, we can all prevail.
We can all come together,
to help where we can.
To help ourselves or to help others.
No one alive,
asked to be born.
But, we were all given
the gift of life.
We all start from different places –
but really
we are all the same
in the end.
We all feel pain.
We all can find peace and joy
if we choose.
We all need to
eat and drink, and we all
sometimes need support.
We all want the best we can
get for ourselves – whatever
it looks like.
Have you ever met anyone who didn’t
deep down, crave love?
We all look different.
We have different circumstances
different cultures,
different languages_
but we are all in this
together.
We are all the same –
of the same history –
we all came here in the
same way,
but, what happened next?
Some people get what they need,
and make the best of that.
Some people get what they need,
but somehow, are not ok.
Some people struggle mightily,
but use their circumstances
as motivation – and succeed.
Others struggle, but stay in
a victimhood story.
Everyone has potential to
be part of the painting,
to find his brush and
contribute to the rainbow
in his own life and
in the canvas of life,
itself.
No storm has to be
too tough to weather
if we can figure it out
together.
The cloud may be dark,
and maybe it doesn’t
feel like a silver lining
is enough,
that you’d rather go back…
but the only path that exists
is the one you follow –
one foot in front of the other,
one second to the next,
until you reach nightfall
until you reach your rest
until you reach the morning
and a brand new opportunity
to put one foot in front of the other
all over again…
until one day, things
are colorful again.