When you find yourself alive
you still have to walk out

Once you’ve seen the overwhelming light
(not blinding, since it comes up
all around you, since it glows
through you and everything you see)

Once you’ve seen the light,
you still have to walk out

You have to go step by step
over the terrain of everything you’ve thought,
everything you’ve walked on
while not noticing its structure

You have to walk out learning
that every dogged step
can be reframed,
must be reformed,
must be transmuted by the light you glimpsed
first once, but then again
in every step that pulls light from the ground,
that grounds you in the solidness of being,
that makes real for you
the holy ground that bears you up

The light is there for you,
and still the journey’s yours  –
you are alive and so
you have to walk out.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 20, 2022