So many people go through life
without ever having written a symphony,
without ever doing a cartwheel,
without ever knowing what it feels like
to be free

So many people (or so it’s said)
have never known true love,
have never felt the exaltation
of the egoless willingness
to be a blessing
and having that fulfilled

People go through life
buying expectations for themselves
from the shelves of sanctioned social options,
wearing them, though they don’t fit,
eating them, though they don’t nourish,
hardly noticing the pressure of the light within
as it attempts to free itself and shine

But by and by
the light will win,
spill out of some chink,
overwhelm them
as it bursts forth
revealing all the vastness of their being
where they don’t go through life —
they really live.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 14, 2014