I Remain

I have learned to accept

That life does not move in straight lines.

It turns like weather

Like Sunday mornings after long nights

Like grief that lingers beside laughter and does not ask permission for a tear or a smile.

I was warned that

You must prepare for hibernation when the cold comes

Shut down when loss arrives

Close the door on what once was

As if memory were a weakness.

But I know better now.

Sorrow and joy

Share the same breath.

I have felt them sitting together

On my chest

One heavy, one warm

Both telling the truth.

What was

Will never be again.

That is not a punishment.

It is a law of living

A sacred turning of the soil.

And what is coming

Does not need my fear.

It does not deserve resentment

Or condemnation

For arriving uninvited.

I will not repress the future

Because the past hurt me.

I will not shrink my becoming

To honor what has already finished speaking.

I stay open

Even when it aches

Especially when it aches

Because seasons do not ask us to disappear.

They ask us to listen

To shed

To hold

To rise

And I

In every season

Remain.