Chasm

Today I am grateful for holiday cookies and my Grandma's recipes. I am also grateful for my job and the energy I get to be part of there.

Today's word is CHASM. It is defined as a deep fissure in the earth, rock, or another surface, or as a profound difference between people, viewpoints, or feelings. I have never physically had to cross chasms. Mine have been more of the mental, emotional, and spiritual variety.

This poem speaks to one of those chasms. How I felt about my physical body and the imperfections it carried. I lacked a comfort level of being in my own skin for many years. Then it slowly got better and better as life experiences like marriage, motherhood, and marathons came along. But ironically, it took a double amputation and recovering from it to really launch me to a new level of acceptance of this earthly vehicle I reside in. That in turn expanded my overall view of myself and the world around me.

I wrote this poem about nine months after having bilateral mastectomies. Cancer took much from me, but it also served as a catalyst in more ways than one. Considering our own mortality has a way of doing that.

Crossing the Chasm

There was a chasm                                         But greater heights

In my life                                                          Better perceptions

I had been                                                       More goals

Trying to cross                                                Were on the

For a long time                                                Other side

                                                                       Of this chasm

It was deep

And wide                                                        Recovery

In it were                                                        Marriage

Some of my                                                    Motherhood

Remaining                                                      Running

Hang-ups                                                       Hadn’t quite

And hold-ups                                                 Launched me

They were                                                      Across it

Substantial

                                                                       Getting cancer

On the other side                                            Became the

Was my brighter self                                       Unexpected

More content                                                  But necessary

More fully realized                                           Catalyst

                                   

I had already                                                   The chasm

Crossed many                                                 Was crossed

Chasms                                                           The view

Climbed higher                                                On this side

Gotten a better view                                        Is spectacular

Than I thought

I would                                                           LV  9/13-9/19/09

In my life

What chasms are you trying to cross? What chasms are you avoiding? We never have to cross alone.