Photo: Inge Vandormael
She had come to make a new life.
She found illness. She found death.
And life, perhaps, hiding in the shadows
Of her convalescing sorrow,
Waiting
To take hold.
She had come in search of meaning.
She found a babble of confusion.
Within. Without.
Rising skyward. Buried underground.
She found hope, too. For things she didn’t know
Even had names
But sprouted meaning
In the corners of what she believed
Was ruined,
But had in fact been opened
To allow in the winds of change.
She came seeking answers,
And found the cost
Of living
Paid for little more than added questions,
And that she had to look
Quite closely
At what wasn’t there,
To find
What she did not even know
She had been searching for.
Photo: The old Smallpox Hospital on Roosevelt Island (a narrow island set in the East River between Queens and Manhattan).
For What Pegman Saw: Manhattan Island
Na'ama Yehuda 
Reblogged this on anita dawes and jaye marie.
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This is sad. For what she was looking for, her life was too short. Or was it because she was on her own? I’m grateful to Alice Miller, Ruth C. Cohn, the Humanistic Psychology, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Marie Luise of Franz and so many others. Bernhard v. Chartres once said that we are dwarves sitting on the shoulders of giants …
All the best to you
Laureen
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Thank you, Laureen.
I would like to think that perhaps she found life, even after seeing death and illness and experiencing hardship, and that perhaps out of her confusion rose something more, and a path.
Yes to all the people you’d listed – so worthy – and many others, too (Estes is a personal favorite!)
Thank you!
Na’ama
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Stellar poem. It’s all so lovely, but the contrariness and irony of the last stanza is wonderful.
Lost and found indeed. Had to savor it a few times!
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Thank you! 🙂 What a lovely feedback to get!
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Very wonderful and poignant. Thank you, Na’ama. 💚
Adele Ryan McDowell, Ph.D.
AdeleRyanMcDowell.com Adeleandthepenguin.com MakingPeacewithSuicide.com Channeledgrace.com
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Thank YOU, dear Adele …. and much love. Na’ama
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Well this makes mine a bunch of fluff!!
Absolutely wow, Na’ama!
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I happen to like fluff. Heavy is only good in moderation … 😉
And … thank you … XOXO
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Truth. The heavy to balance out… all that sweet would bring on cavities and extra weight (yeah, yeah, not for you, but for us regular folk) 😛
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😀 Hope springs eternal. Maybe one day I’ll be “more comfy to sit on” (as one toddler, sitting in my lap and trying to find a comfy spot to rest her head, complained that I “don’t have squishy pillows…”).
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Buahahaha!!! Out of the mouths of babes..
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Yep. Them tell it like it be.
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😇
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Sad story of many ones.
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Indeed it is! And perhaps also some story of hope, for those who came with one dream and found the possibility of another.
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