if you do not feel you can handle

this life for even one more day,

there is reassuring news indeed.

 

your history does not your future

need to be.

 

if those feelings and memories

loom large and invite you to think

back where you have been,

 

then take a breath, and start again

–as many times as you may need–

and this life that you live today can be

 

increasingly distant from the one that’s been

as you lift your eyes and look to horizons

wide, different paths, alternate directions.

 

it may not feel like it

right in this moment,

but you, even and especially you,

have the power to make this happen,

 

to modify direction, no matter how small,

leads to enormous change, like arrows

drawn on page that start on the same

dot, but with the most minimal variation

grow increasingly apart with distance.

 

and this does not need to overwhelm,

the process can be as gentle as required,

and all these small, manageable things

together are mammoth in the end.

 

and i for one, cannot wait to see

what your life becomes.

 

and please remember, those burdens from

yesterday are far too heavy for this journey

ahead, so do not worry about when or

where or just how you do it—

 

but put them firmly down.

 

Heather Pound 2023

Photo by s. asah. on Unsplash