I cupped my hands over both ears
took a long, slow, deep breath in and out
again and again
until my breath was like a series of waves
and I washed up on the shores
of my own inner landscape
each wave of breath brought more
fragments of myself to the shoreline
I gazed into the broken places and
I saw grief comfort fear
I saw compassion laying on hands with envy
I saw hope reaching out to despair
now I could see where the separate places came together
to make the whole
and the whole was yet another fragment
of a greater whole
and I lay there
letting the waves
wash over
all my unbroken places.
~elizabeth adams
