What If?

What if there were no way to do life wrong?
What if all your missteps
And the resulting storms of shame and regret
Even in their impossibly frustrating and agonizing repetition
What if these iterations
Are each simply one less time that painful step has to be taken
Before a wiser and deeper truth is revealed to you?

And what if that relentless driver of perfection
Who clamors obsessively in your ear
Especially loud in the vulnerable moments,
Saying you have never done, and will never be enough
Is only as real as clouds are graspable by your hands?

What if it is neither possible to completely fail nor completely satisfy yourself?
What if, when all your ideas of right and wrong are stripped away
The only remaining truth is that your very choices,
Your stumblings and the mistakes you’ve made,
The risks and chances you’ve taken,
Your myriad successes and failures
All speak a simple and quiet truth
Of who you are meant to be

What if how you “should” be
Is being defined every day
And in the most exact terms
By your very being: your unique, messy and imperfectly human life

What if the “right” way to live
Could not possibly be anything other
Than exactly who you are?

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Assistant Editor: Melissa Petty/Editor: Bryonie Wise

Photo: courtesy of the author