I enjoyed poetry in my youth–especially in college as an English major. Then I got busy with the serious business of life–working hard, trying to keep up with the many demands of daily living.

Then I attended the retreat on Conscious Eldering and I was drawn back into the world of poetry which feels to me like a “heart massage.” One poem that I love is by Donna Markova titled, “I Will Not Die an Unlived Life.”

I will not die an unlived life.
I will not live in fear
of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow living to open me,
to make me less afraid,
more accessible,
to loosen my heart

until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance,
to live so that which came to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom,
and that which came to me as blossom,
goes on as fruit.

This poem would have appealed to my youthful idealism years ago. Now is appeals even more as I embark on my Third Chapter. Now is my chance to be sure the blossoms go on as fruit.