Growing Pains

GROWING PAINS

Walking along

 the ice flow of life

guiding you though

the hazards rife

 

Numerous doth

The tempests grow

With wisdom and faith

We do go

 

You wander off bit

No hope of respite

Between us a crack appears

Untold waxing of my fears

The crack doth widen

The ice doth brake

I reach out

But its too late

 

As I see you drifting off

I think of all that

You still don’t know

And how much more

You need to grow

 

I see that smile on your face

Towards the unknown future

You doth race

Of the guidance I have given

I see no trace

 

My heart aches deep

As I sit and weep

At the sorrows I see

Ahead of thee

And for me there is nothing

That I can do

To ease that burden

Ahead of you

 

My limits are reached

My defenses, breached

Nothing left

For me to teach

Wishing for things to end

Reflecting on what

Doth I  portend

 

I know one day

You will find your way

And perhaps I may

Still be here

And on that day

My heart will cheer

 

At that time

 it will show

All that

I did know

And how much

You did grow

 

But for now I see you drift away

The currents now

Hold their sway

And heavy doth

My heart weigh. 

-Shiidon, Jalál 166BE, April 2009

Growing pains come at all points in life.  They are not reserved only for the young.  Sometimes the growing pains of the young are shared with those senior to them.  The growth comes for both in different ways.  Tests and difficulties are rife around us.  One does not have too look outside ones doors to find them at times.  The key is how do we handle them.  For me the true solace is in prayer.  Prayer is the "ladder of my soul."  It is what lifts me out of the darkness I sometimes see around me.  Two of the prayers I say every day are one for detachment and the other for tests and difficulties.  I thought of a Polar Bear with its young and the metaphore to our lives it could reflect.  I leave you with a line from one of these prayers.

  "But for the tribulations which are sustained in Thy path, how could Thy true lovers be recognized..."