Climbing Walls
On the precipice of sixty,
I am learning to fall,
Trusting I’ll land safely.
On Monday evenings,
I gather with two other
Renegade students
From the local-town
Night school:
Together, we don shoes
A size too small,
And grapple with pretend rocks,
On carefully constructed walls.
Beginning rock climbing
Has helped me recognize
The other areas in life,
I am too-tightly gripped.
Time spent on the wall
Has revealed:
Sometimes just letting go,
Is your best or only option.
And so you fall,
And then you get up again.
We were first taught
How best to fall,
And where not to go land,
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As safety precautions.
We were encouraged to ascend,
And applauded for both
Accomplishment and effort.
I feel I am finally trusting:
Gravity, physics, science;
The Universe’s wise ways.
To consciously fall from a wall,
You must relinquish control,
Willingly, consciously,
Uncomfortably.
The safe thing wants you stuck,
Still attached to that wall.
But you let go, anyway.
You let go …
Because stuck and attached,
Will get you nowhere.
You let go …
Because it’s all you can do.
I started rock climbing,
Just as my youngest child,
Started to drive.
Karma has returned full-circle:
For the children
That had me climbing walls
Raising them;
Now have me climbing walls,
Losing them.
