Good morning, all ~
Approaching the first anniversary of getting the prosthesis, I remembered this poem I wrote back then about walking that day in the parallel bars. Thought you might like to read it. Forgive me if I've posted it before....blame the forgetfulness on aging changes as I am 48 ya know, and some things just can't be helped!
Merme
Ten Steps
I do not always know where miracles hide
Though I often pray for many
And believe for all.
Expecting the miraculous to be like mountains
a thunderous applause from splendid skies.
Instead, oh instead sometimes they come in the simplest things;
They catch me unaware, unmindful of His Presence
And yet He’s there in that next impossible breath
Made possible by His courage
The heart begins to beat again, the eyes open
Reality pours in like the kindness of a familiar friend.
I do not always know where miracles hide
On my knees in pursuit of heaven
Searching the treasure of His word
To answer my fearful questions
Clinging tightly to Him anyway
When all seems lost and there is no going back.
Asking, ever asking how to solve the riddle of life
All undone without my limb.
I do not always know where miracles hide
Sometimes the smallest spaces contain the biggest gap
Yesterday a necessary single step defeated me
A step I could not take without my leg.
Hope was just beyond my reach
Just past where I could touch
In frustrated silence alone I sat and wept.
Satisfaction might as well have been a thousand miles away.
Puny distance or no, it was a place I couldn’t go.
I do not always know where miracles hide
Yet I have learned to roll over again
I have learned to stand and not to fall
I came back from the edge
And have found loved ones still waiting
Learning to eat, to write, to use my hands
To get strong, to endure, to find another way.
The tenderhearted people of my community
Fair strangers well met; my own family
Cheering me on, sustaining me and my son.
Maybe the poets wouldn’t record this
Cecil B DeMille wouldn’t make a film
But today I walked ten steps, ten!
A green titanium pylon, stripped down and bare.
A pipe in an artificial foot stuck into my shoe
Made me walk again. The miracle came out of hiding
In ten precious steps, ten!
It felt like dancing.
28 January 2004
© M& Salunek