A Poem for Reclaiming Your Power
The nature of resistance is tricky
It brings to mind warring countries,
one occupying another
But on an individual level
we can be occupied internally
without any outside force
holding us hostage,
yet we’re still not free
A woman
who takes a job she hates
out of a sense of “responsibility”
and stays and stays
despite her internal resistance
After years of thwarting herself
hobbling her voice and creativity
her knee gives out
she’s eventually unable to walk
out of real pain in the body
replacing the psychic pain
of an ill-fitting job & life
Where she’s placed the tourniquet
to seal off the pain
it blocks the joy too
and she’s suddenly clear
the stagnation of her life
her inability to move
in sharp relief
to who she once was
and who she can still be
No matter the length of
the suspended animation
with the decision
to turn around, to heal
to move forward,
the tourniquet removed
the blood flows back
and it hurts even more as it does
but the only way out is through
the momentary pain
a reckoning
with heaviness of
how she’s betrayed herself
consciously chosen over
continually silently suffering
When we learn to occupy ourselves
fully with no room left
for outside voices or forces
that maybe once were useful
but now are no longer helpful
we take back our power
and we are free.