Gratitude

The relief
of allowing
the truth
that I am not the one
making all of this happen
that I am and always have been
part of a web
of friends and neighbours and strangers
that I do not have to know
everything
that I can say ‘I do not know’
that all the harshness
and the struggle
and the pain
was hung on a lie
that I hung on to
that I was in charge
and knew everything
and had to make everything happen
and could not say I did not know

I just did not know
that I did not know
and I did not know
it was ok
that I did not know

and realising that
my heart shakes off
the locks
that kept it closed
and I breathe freely

and gratitude releases me.

From ‘Autopoesies’, a series of automatic poems. You can read more here.

Or you can download a copy of my version of Lao Tsu’s Tao Te Ching (‘I thought I was on the way to work, but I was on the way home’) here.

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