I want to soak up light and colour,

feel the late afternoon wind caress,

inhale the salt of sea

Cease losing more moments

of my life to ‘numb’, or

‘making it through the day’

These quietly subtle thieves of time

are wretched scoundrels in disguise

~~~~

I want to embody joy, occupy tranquillity

provide aroha, be present in the now, embrace,

Take the time and space as needed

to examine heart and mind—often,

to unravel to that place

of primal connection to spirit

and what it means to be alive,

to fan the spark that lives within

to fully be alive–and connected–again

~~~~

—when we have been operating on auto-pilot and are missing precious moments of life

©Heather Pound 2022

(Aroha is the Maori word for ‘love, ‘but it speaks to empathy, community, and quite literally breathing life into someone else. This word fully deserves many poems of its own, but just so the non-Kiwis understand it here.)