Tenuous
Tenuous: delicate, fragile, slender, flimsy, slight
A fallen leaf in mid-September is fragile. A late-in-the season blossom is a little more flimsy than one in the height of summer. Yet, their beauty and strength are both evident. They exist fully, even if a little on the delicate side.
Tenuous. Our human existence can be described the same. In the whole scheme of things, we are tiny specks here for an instant.
Two men dying of cancer after the disease ravaged their organs and bones. A young man overdosing. Lives cut short. These were people I knew, directly or indirectly. Accidents, addictions, illnesses, heart attacks, suicides, and violence take lives every day. We will each have our turn to have our last day, our last breath.
I can live in fear of that. Treading too carefully through my days, spiritually closed off and emotionally hesitant.
Or I can move forward with love and joy, precious and fragile as I am, and LIVE FULLY.
Life is precious and fragile, emphasis on precious. Life is amazing and fleeting, emphasis on amazing.
When we allow ourselves to lean into our own vulnerability, that is when our hearts and souls really open to the vastness of possibility and opportunity.
This is a poem I consider one of my best. It seems a fitting closing for today’s post:
What Holds Us
On a run, I consider my physical body, first created by my parents.
Decades later it carries me and I carry it; we know how to compromise.
It’s an amazing venture; these trillions of cells and thousands of miles of lifelines.
The ground beneath me is stable, even while our planet rotates and revolves.
Gravity holds me here, on this day, in this millennium. Seasons change,
tides ebb and flow, mountains rise, as do sun and moon. Awe and humility preside.
The power and particles of the Universe are within you and me, and also boundless.
Physical matter, elemental and atomic matter; they all matter infinitely.
We are but tiny specks in a timeless history, yet we each matter immeasurably.
©Lisa Valentine (May 15, 2021)
