Hold on, just one more day...

Poetry Oracle: Week of October 2nd

Welcome back to the Self Love Confidential Poetry Oracle, where the universe sends you the message you need to hear right now by way of a poem or two from one of my books.

If are ready for the struggle to stop, this week’s Oracle is for you.

The Shift: Poetry for a New Perspective

When the pandemic started in March of 2020, I told myself a lie: by Easter it will be okay, just hold on. The funny thing is I’m Jewish, so I don’t even celebrate Easter, and yet, I found comfort in choosing this arbitrary date in the future to cling to as my salvation from the pandemic. But then Easter came and went, and even though I kept pushing back the deadline for normal to return, deep down inside, I’m sure I knew the whole time that this deadline-driven coping strategy was just that: a coping strategy, and not in fact tied to reality.

Of course this isn’t the only time I’ve pulled myself through a difficult moment by promising myself relief in the future. Just get through the summer, just get through the illness, just get through the financial strain, get through January, October, one more day, one more minute. But this week, I’m committing to a new reality — and I invite you to join me in embracing it: the finish line is a fallacy. I will likely never get to a place where life allows me to coast, but that’s okay.

To live may mean to struggle, but it also means to live. I am able and well and hopefully so are you. October is going to be a crazy busy month for me — and perhaps for you too — but instead of lying to myself and saying I just have to get through it, I will instead remember the privilege of experiencing October, no matter how much it will demand of me. The struggle is over not because life stopped being hard — but rather because I’ve surrendered and embraced it.

My task, and yours, this week (and really this month) is to remember that each day is our gift, and while we can’t control every element of what life puts in our path, we can do our best to make a life worth living — no clock or calendar required.

The Shift: Poetry for a New Perspective