dawning realizations

Rachel, and Patterns







a first can be obvious:
a smile,
a meeting of the eye,
a word,
a step,
yet each “first” can only break through
when enough experience adds up,
and the processor within processes it all enough,
and well enough,
for a new thought to jell,
and the processor within to choose to know it
and to choose to act upon the new knowledge,

our 5 year old granddaughter is full of questions about pattern,
about how much examples she already knows are true
beyond the immediate worlds she knows firsthand,

yesterday it was surgery--why’s, how, the taste of the anesthetic, the feel,
all about an assault on the body integrity: how long will the scar last?

a dawning realization that this too shall pass,
mortality as the patterns breaks, or is fulfilled,

so much of who we are as a species
is built upon that realization that that which is won’t always be,
and there’s sorrow, and joy, within that truth,
perhaps mortality is god’s gift
as we feel as an individual with limited time
so we must make most of the hours,
she’s opening that gift
and that within is great and scary,










I celebrate every breakthrough into realization, understanding,
and dawning wisdom that each of us can make,
and Rachel’s mind and soul stretch wide to hold that which is true.

by Henry Walker
April 3, ’10