When change comes to knock at your door

A poem about opening the aperture of your heart a little wider

When change comes to knock at your door
Announcing your required surrender
Of that which you had hoped to hold onto
Let yourself soften into the disappointment 
Let you heart feel the ache of longing 
Like the rose who yearns to remain in bloom
Wide open to the world and sun.
This longing is not a problem
Nor is the heartache that happens
When the wilt begins.

You were not made to have no difficult feelings 
When change occurs
Do not mistake the pain you feel
For spiritual underdevelopment
And do not rush into the work of
Plans and platitudes and promises to your self
All those self-protective attempts to make this required sacrifice
Cut you less deep.
Just stay with the feeling of grief for a day, for a moment.
Lay it on the altar of life 
And let it make sacred this turning of the wheel

When change comes to knock at your door
Your work 
Is to perfume the air 
With the truth of bittersweet pining coming through you
To paint the canvas of life
With the pain of impermanence 
To let your heart silently sing the song of this loss
With such resonance
That the trees remember the losses 
of every autumn they have survived

When change comes to knock at your door
Open the aperture of your heart a little wider
Until the ache you feel 
Slowly softens around the edges 
Until a gateway opens
Just enough 
To let a deeper intimacy with Life itself
come rushing in. 

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with love,
Olivia