Sometimes Life wraps you up in her bosom.
The Living Embodiment of Life
A Poem In Prose
Sometimes Life wraps you up in her bosom. Her embrace warm and engulfing. She holds you and there is nowhere safer. Nowhere anyone could rather be.
Other times Life tosses you off a building. She aims for the sides of fire escapes, just hard enough that you ricochet. She angles it just right so that you bounce off the dumpster’s exterior instead of its softer insides. You’d almost marvel at what a great pool player Life must be, racking your balls just to bust them again and again.
And again.
It seems unfair, doesn’t it? How do you make Life lay off? How do you tell her, “You win! I’d just like a little break! Please?”
You don’t. Or rather, if you do, you hope she’s feeling nurturing. You hope she’s kind. Hope springs eternal, but it’s a lousy survival strategy.
So instead, you live your life. Sure, you break down. We all do. We cry, weep, wail. Lash out at circumstances. Violence rarely fixes anything but a release does wonders.
You live. Do what needs to be done, and sometimes that’s resting. Or despairing. Recovering.
We’re human. And guess what humans are? Resilient. Resourceful. Resurgent.
You and me? We’re also triumphant.
We embrace Life when she’s being loving. The other times? We frame and re-frame. We control circumstances when we can and determine our responses when we can’t.
We bend but don’t break.
We break but don’t die.
We’re storytellers. We create our own realities all the damn time. Modifying reality should be child’s play.
And the next time Life tosses one of us off a building? We’ll show that bitch we’ve learned how to fly.
Scott Hughey is on the side of life. At least when she’s nice.
