Finding Your Individual Essence Poem by RoseAnn V. Shawiak

Living on earth can be so devastating when you are left
waiting in spaces of time, having been forgotten.

Worn ragged, torn within from shards of life and loss
that have cut apart our beings and spirits.

Taking our turns in line, making sure that others are
always taken care of before ourselves.

Leaving ourselves til last, set on closet shelves,
doors being closed on us at the end of each day.

Walls standing in the way, blocking artistic aspects in
life, carpeting covering up the essence of our natures,
as we walk barefooted on them instead of grass outdoors.

What do we give up when we are born as human beings in
towns and cities, never getting to be a part of nature
and it's universe.

Being left out in the cold, wandering this earth, looking
insatiably for things we are missing, not knowing what
they are.

Until finally spending time in nature's essence, realizing
that we have never had an interior spirituality, having
never been taught how to achieve one from parents or family.

Discovering it at last on your own, finding the essence of
your being, reaching for it unselfishly and completely.