Your Other Lives

In my journey of letting go of the many things I can't control, and fully appreciating the things I can, a poem arose. I'm grateful for the people in my life who allow me to practice my North Star ~ Compassion as the #1 condition, before being right, proving something or any other reasons my ego contrives.... 

Your Other Lives
©February 3, 2024 Karla Johnston, InnerConstellation.com

Irish Poet and philosopher, John O’Donohue,
asked a lilting question—
In the major crossroads of life,
you make pivotal decisions,
that send you in a completely different direction—
What happens to your other lives?
What happens to the ones who continue onward,
not turning at the crossroads?

My other life called last night,
I understood only about half of what he said,
compromised in a myriad of ways.
He longs to travel, but has not yet physically voyaged 
beyond where we were born and raised,
and so, because he, too, feels our connection,
he asks about my recent trip to Hawaii.
We talk of the ocean, shades of every imaginable blue,
crash of giant waves, reverberating in the gut.
His listening pause is companionable, knowing, spacious and true.
We speak of a Sea Turtle, rising above the coral floor
and staring with huge black eyes, into mine.
“Hmmm,” he says dreamily, “that’s awe-some.”

Even now, that ancient one wedges herself among the reef and rests
while liquid waves of poetry roll by....

When conversation flows to slurring mush,
I wrestle with expectation,
I want to ask about the recent battery of tests,
analyzing his beautiful brain.
I feel an almost unbearable desire to see the unseeable,
to know what is happening inside our cellular body.
I wish to penetrate beyond phone waves,
beyond instinct
to understand what is happening.
Then, Dear Second-Body,
I have a moment of lucidity:
all of this expectation,
competes with just loving you,
just loving us.
You are my life,
and, I am yours.

Riding the waves
as roads intersect:
addiction, recovery,
healthy, unhealthy,
clarity, unclarity,
I walk the only road I care to walk ~
that of love.