Wintering Storm

I came to the beach to end my wintering

Just as the tourist season was coming to a close.

I sit here wettened, not by the ocean but the storm passing over.

Eventually I had to escape to shelter.

The rage wouldn’t let up and finally lightning had to split the sky

So darkened by its outburst.

As I am now trapped in my car

I sense that perhaps I rushed my ending,

And going to the seaside was premature.

No, I must sit here surrounded by the roar of rain

Until it is safe again, until the clearing allows a way out.

I am wintering through my own storm

Raging with grief that has all but driven me to the edge of all I have known.

Our emotions can truly confine us,

Creating a detour from our lives that have become foreign

And in order to return, requires a renovation of the Self.

How we must be polished.

Once I was a mountain.

I pray this journey leaves me greater than a grain of sand,

That this grief doesn’t wash me away

But teaches me to stand strong

And learn to surf these mighty waves

Until we have humbled each other like a great salve of salvation.