Retrospect

The longer I live, 

the more opportunities I have 

to feel the feelings of those I might have judged 

in the past and truly begin to understand the source 

of those feelings and the responses that, at the time,

I could neither understand nor accept.

I even remember saying, 

"That is unacceptable,"

and believing it!

Thankfully, 

I have lived long enough 

to get to be on the other side, 

fearing that something very valuable to me

(a person, a relationship, an identity) 

was going to be taken from me or forever changed 

in ways I didn't think I could possibly accept.

Fear does that, you know.

I don't look forward to those eye-and-soul-opening times,

(and I know more will be coming)

but I can better see them now for what they are--

reminders that we are all connected

by one great big pool of human feelings,

and that all of us, 

throughout our lives, 

dip from that very same pool,

a fathomless pool, 

the very source of which is  

Love,
when we dip down deep enough.