We found ourselves in someone else’s story
and the characters we were cast as,
we didn’t know them, didn’t know
what words and actions, on their part,
would put us in good graces,
or let us even know where we stood

Then we remembered: this is our story.
We own the tale in which these people
think we’re something other than what we are,
and may harbor expectations
that we act in ways to please them,
ways about which we have no clue

And grace — the only way we’ll really find it
is to float up free from story altogether,
to hold their words and gestures
in the kindest light
and count on Spirit —
the universal breath that we all share —
to braid our lives together in its course.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 18, 2016