Surveying this vast expanse
I experience a sense of eternity.
The salty ocean spray mists my face.
I dig deep into the sand
to find the moisture below.
The beach is rich with life.
Sea gulls squawk overhead
Pelicans skydive for supper
while sand crabs burrow deep
Limpets and mussels cling desperately
to wave-worn rocks.
A shell tumbles towards the shore
pushed by the last big wave.
At water’s edge, I yell in my biggest voice.
Fears, rage, sorrow,
hopes, longings and deepest desires
crashing out from a primal scream
Firmly and safely held by the powerful waves
and the thunderous sound of the surf.
The ocean holds them all.
Heaven and earth hear my prayer.
No more will I hide from life.
Transformation begins.
Dreaming turns into Doing.
Wishing becomes will-power.
Digging demands discovery.
I AM.
—Rose Lester
(Originally published in Writing Flora, Writing Fauna (2018). Used with permission of the author.)
Rose Lester is a Marriage and Family Therapist in private practice. As a true renaissance woman, she aspires to all things creative and is at home in a variety of creative mediums from song writing and singing, to playing her violin and guitar, to painting and sculpting, or writing poems about life and transformation. Her poems have been published in several anthologies and online websites. She volunteers for the Art for Healing program at Mercy Hospital and helps lead the Threshold Choir that sings at the bedside of those in need of comfort and peace.