On Growing

I once had
an imaginary dialogue
with my 17-year-old self,
using techniques I had learned
to unstuck him.

The techniques
certainly helped
but he had already
unstuck himself
back then.

I realized then:
techniques are tools.
Dialogues, imaginations,
mere abstractions.

The important thing is love.
The important thing is endurance.
The important thing is hope
and awareness, and faith, and trust.

Not avoidance,
but true experience of the void
when it surfaces.

For the universe works
in mysterious ways,
beyond our comprehension,
making voids fertile
after we have endured them.

Chase not understanding,
but experiencing,
experimenting,
and loving life.

When this poem makes sense,
you have found calm.