More and more
I have to stop asking, why?
and learn to say, thank you—

To my sadness.

Because the less I search
for its origin,

The more I understand
of its function.

The way tears, for example,
serve to clear the blinders from my eyes so that

What was once a world of abstract concept is suddenly
more present, immediate, real.

As vivid as wind rippling through silk,
as though the heart breaks in order to
allow the world in
a little more deeply.

Or the way pain
digs out hollow spaces inside me
in which for music, art, poetry to plant themselves and do
the work of medicine

Softening and rearranging me so that
I can sense more of what it is
To be alive.

Or the way darkness
sucks me so deep into its hollow well
that the very things I once looked down upon as somehow

Mundane

Become the fixtures
by which I hoist myself back
toward The Light.

And the world
just as it is
with nothing extraordinary

Suddenly appears to me as

A Heaven

And I find myself wondering things like:

Who could ever possibly need angels
when there are birds?

Or who could ever possibly need God
when there is morning?

Yes.

I must stop asking why.
I must learn to say
Thank You
Thank You
Thank You—

Even when it hurts like hell.

~

~

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Author: Sonia Temkin
Image: Unsplash/Cody Black
Editor: Travis May
Copy & Social Editor: Nicole Cameron