Get through

This poem offers permission to move through difficult experiences without needing to do so gracefully.

There is no requirement to be composed, certain, or even particularly skillful at surviving what hurts. Sometimes all we need is a sense of what lies beyond the present moment and enough willingness to keep moving toward it.

Getting through can be messy.

All that matters is that you do.

I think there can be an enormous amount of pressure to suffer well.

To remain composed. To understand what is happening. To find the lesson. To respond thoughtfully and demonstrate that we are healing in all the right ways. (At least that's how it's felt to me most of my life.)

Sometimes we simply can't.

This poem was a reminder to myself that moving forward does not have to look graceful in order to be real.

What matters most in the poem is direction:

What idea
What vision
What feeling
What relief

I don't think we always need to know exactly where we are going. Sometimes it is enough to recognize a feeling we want to move toward—a little more freedom, safety, possibility, or relief—and let that become our orientation.

Then we move however we can.

Messily. Imperfectly. Clumsily. Humanly.

There is a tenderness in allowing ourselves to be bad at getting through something difficult. To stumble forward without turning the stumbling into another reason to judge ourselves.

Sometimes perseverance is not heroic.

Sometimes it is simply continuing.

And sometimes that is enough.