Where to

next?
I ask, looking
down into her
seagreen eyes.

You know,
she smiles.
You’re on your way
there,
already.
Keep going.

I reach for her
hand. This
tiny girl
version of
me.
So sure of
herself. So
obviously capable,
as she makes
sense of the world.

What next?
When I sit
with this question,
and turn down
the noise of everyday
life,
I do know.
It’s in the whispers of
the cool breeze, combing
through a forest of
trees.
It’s in the slow crunch of
my shoes
on the pine forest
floor.
It’s in the slow, rhythmic
lick of the sea over the
pale beach.
It’s there.

And I know
the time is going
to pass,
anyway.
Irrespective of
whether I do the right
thing, rather than the
easy thing.
Irrespective of whether
I stay inside my head,
in fear, or step out, and up
and do.
For there is magic
in the doing.
There is release. And
abandon. And
hope, and
joy.

It’s all there, just like
she knew
it would
be.

~Lu