IN CHANGE

(With all that has been happening with my sister's health issues and my time being taken up with that and finding a comfortable place for her, I have not had time to write. Notes only. And keeping track of her money and expenses, meds, etc. have not left time or energy for much else. This is a poem my husband, Duncan, wrote while I was down in San Francisco with my sister. It speak to me of what she is going through, what we all go through. I think it is really good.)

In change
there is fear and hope.
In change there is discomfort.

Nothing grows without change,
thought, belief, or mercy.

In change,
life is in charge,
in change I am small.

All of good grows cold,
all of the bad gets older.

In change
I am caught in the middle,
in change I am waiting.

What comes is unexpected,
or worse, suspected.

I tried to keep change
from happening,
for once too much change threw me,
and trampled me, and left me in limbo.

But change has come,
nevertheless,
in love, and work, and play.

The change I've accepted,
and the change I have fought.

In change, I've tried a measured dose,
a time or space just right,
in change there has been overflowing,
and sometimes the running dry.

I've been a rock, a stick,
but change has flowed around me,
and I've reached out,
in rare times.

In change, I've found fulfillment,
where I expected little,
change I've tried myself,
before change was laid on me.

In change,
I've seen there is no escaping.
Just acceptance,
of all I am and all I'm not.

And yet, in change,
I am thankful,
for all the surprise
and curiosity of what's next.

In change,
I am different despite myself,
in change I have lived my life.

9.8.09
Duncan McGeary