Don't throw out the prophet...

Where will I go next in my journey

Aye, I am already here

In the next

Which is the now

~*~

My mind's eye recalls August 3, 2010

I stand in the darkness of night

In the forest

In a circular space

Where various paths converge

Just north of the Roan Highlands

On the Appalachian Trail

Which had just disappeared 

In the dark, in the hub

With headlamp upon my forehead

I search for the trail blaze 

Upon a tree trunk

(Wow, 8/03/10...

The day after JK's words...

Plunged my heart like a dagger...

And I began to shrink...

Eleven-plus years ago...

I've wondered the last few days

Am I picking up where I dropped off 

 

I am broadening again 

Deepening, growing

Instead of shrinking

Instead of occupying inertia 

Maintaining survival mode

 

But have I not been growing 

All along

Yet I also shrank

And in the shrinking I grew

Life is filled with paradox)

Now in this August of 2021

I again find my self in a hub

With various paths from which to choose

Not in a forest, but in my soul

Carol, don't throw out the prophet

Don't reject based on your projection

But don't abandon the lessons you've lived and learned

Be as aware as capable in any given circumstance 

Especially be aware of your responses

There's more to live, more to learn

Stay open. humble, patient, grateful

Listen. Listen. Listen...

Re-member. Re-member. Re-member.... 
Be. Be. Be....

Take the next step...

And the next...

And the next...

Which will then... 

Become the now...

Is that not 

In some sense

Prophetic 

___________

Right after posting this piece, Don't throw out the prophet, I visited my poetry vault at Poetry Pages. Curious about what I'd written way back when, I clicked on a poem. And...here is what I read: Of Paths and Surrender, written in 2006. 

Oh my.... 

Quite the serendipity after writing my prose above...
I searched Parchment Anthology and couldn't find that old poem. So I posted it here.