Unburdened.

“I am a burden.”
I carry myself:
A packed haversack
on my very own back.

I am loaded with needs
to the tip, to the brim –
and if they spill?
A tsunami
in which everyone must swim.
A murky, storm-watery
flood of “I need!”
“Please help me!” “I’m drowning!”

How can this be freed?

“I am human. I need.”
This cannot be changed.
And denying my needs
only summons more rain.
Pushing my needs down
only gives rise to pain.

So I walk to a place where I can meet my needs.
I’m invited right in – I need not beg and plead.
A lush garden awaits (albeit with some weeds).
It’s been waiting for me – here I bend and I kneel:

I honour the needs I acknowledged and voiced.
I honour the needs that were lost in the noise.
I honour the needs of which I’ve been ashamed.
I honour and love them, all one and the same.

Hello, needs.
You look so beautiful today.
Come forward, come in –
I won’t sweep you away;
won’t insist you stay hidden there under the rug.
Come closer, loves – let me give you hug.

How cold you have been – how rejected and feared!
And how loud you yelled out, hoping just to be heard!
How I blamed you for yelling – and yet gave you a speaker –
to be heard even louder, though I wanted you weaker.

Thank you, dear needs, is what I want to say.
You have always been friends – every step of the way.

You have not been burdens.
I have not been a boulder
carried reluctantly
on my family’s shoulder.

I have been – and am – human.
That is all. What relief!
How clouded it’s all been
by mistaken beliefs.

I am human.
I rest in this joyous knowledge.
I rest in this
as I seek and I dig and I forage.
I rest in this
as I work and I eat and I sleep.
I rest as my needs spread out roots that run deep
through my body and being, through the core of this earth.
I give them a place here, and bow to their worth.

I am human.
My needs come and go in their cycles,
and meeting these needs
is nothing short of vital.

I am human,
bestowed with the Gift that is Life –
I am this Gift itself,
and I glow with its Light.

I’m a Gift to myself, to my family and friends;
I’m a Gift that keeps giving, a Love with no end.

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

Jiena rigal
lill-familja u ’l ħbieb.
Ftaħt għajnejja u qed nara
kemm fetħuli l-bieb,
kemm tawni mħabba,
kemm offrewli għinuna;
u li qiegħda hawn magħhom
m’hi l-ebda sfortuna;
M’hi l-ebda problema.
Jien m’inix problema.
Jien rigal mimli ħajja.
Jien l-imħabba u l-hena.

Jien m’jien l-ebda piż.
Jien rigal mimli ħajja.
u m’hemm l-ebda dalma titkaxkar warajja.

Jiena niddi bid-dawl
bħax-xemx tleqq fuq il-bajja.
Posti huwa hawnhekk.
Jien rigal mimli ħajja.

Image by Melissa Askew