Steps Six and Seven: There Are Truly Gifts Inside

Statue of Franciscan monk hitting a piñata
Acolman, Mexico State, photo by AlejandroLinaresGarcia

Give in!  Anger and Will won’t help us.  Now

we want to open up instead of fend

off, willingly.  No can-opener (so

useful to feeding ourselves) will help now.

There was a time and place for anger that

liberated us from fear and hate grown

in oppression, depression, self-pity

and other products of patriarchy.

Anger led to empowerment and we

re-formulated and proceeded to

footholds—despite supremacy—from which 

to minister freedom of thought and voice.

And now, it is our turn to burst out from

the armor that protected us, explode

the piñatas we became and proclaim

(and pray) I’m ready! Anger has had its day.

We break as willingly as we have fought—

more so, and with much more to gain or lose

by surrender than by fight and flight.  But how?

Applying less effort we have to learn.

Use me well, I lay down my arms, we pray.

I have much more power to give, we say.

Should I have done it all differently?

we ask, as we feel floor under our knees.

And Mercy lends us Grace, so we proceed

to stand again—broken, reset, slower,

with no regret—forgiving ourselves and

others the angers that helped us take a stand. 

Inspired by Richard Rohr's 

TWELVE-STEP SPIRITUALITY: Steps Six and Seven

Part of my series Oh, Ye of Little Faith*

My blog poems are rough drafts. 

Please respect my copyright.

© 2016 Susan L. Chast