Figure It Out
Did she choose her challenges
or did she accept them?
Either way,
it’s always been her way
to want to find a way.
To figure it out.
To make it work.
To help.
Some blending of courage and faith.
She knew her students might not blossom
right away,
But the seeds of hope she planted
and tended
and defended
Did often sprout.
Sometimes after she was there to see it.
She knew that months must pass again at school
far from her parents.
So she role-played with her friends,
Acting silly parts while her happiness
grew real.
She knew her first bike surely would go faster
if she could only get those training wheels off,
And she was right.
She taught herself to ride.
She taught herself to try.
Now she has learned to back away sometimes.
To find a way for balance.
To sit quietly with Peter.
To be gentle with herself.
To tend another tiny mustard seed.
And yet I can imagine
when she opens a new puzzle
and she pours the pieces out, anticipating,
She leaves straight edges
mixed in with the others.
Training wheels–who needs them?
She starts with that green misty swath,
the hardest part,
the background for the beauty,
So as she nears the end the pieces
almost find themselves.
The picture flies together.
And she’s breezing on her little bike, beaming.
