This life can lead us to strange places, places we never imagined we’d be. At times it feels like a labyrinth, a series of choices that guides us to or away from a certain path. Many people talk about destiny as if it were a train on rails, and we had very little choice in the matter. I believe instead that destiny is a series of crossroads, not something predetermined but something that we find, that we create, with the choices we make. It’s a maze that seems to go on forever or at least for the rest of our lives. Join me as I navigate the maze with this special poem I wrote about the twist and turns of life.
LABRINTHINE
Dedalus has nothing on the intricate designs of God
Walls and traps, twist and turns, this life is rather odd.
The world swirls on its axis while our souls without and within
We’re gung ho, we take a leap and find ourselves at wit’s end.
We learn languages, we learn instruments, we develop different hobbies
But after all of this, to fit into the world, we chose to become carbon copies.
We seek out our truest selves but hide them for our friends
For if our friends knew the real us, would that be the end?
Why should it be? The real is the better.
Should we follow the law of God by the spirit or the letter.
How do we navigate the twists and turns, the traps of life?
Is that the voice of God I hear or a devil seeking strife?
How can we let go of our pride, our desire to hide?
How can we unleash the child that’s inside?
I don’t claim to know, this maze has only one exit.
We were born into this maze and in this maze we will die
but the most important thing is the love that we tried.
Were we a light in someone’s dark, a hand to guide their way
or did we ignore our fellow man and go about our day?
Did we stand against the crowd and their vengeful cries
or did we go along to get along, discontent in our disguise.
They say a maze hides the truth, blind your point of view
but the truth is that’s what humans do.
We’ve no idea we’re even in a maze or that our choices lead to change
for better or for worse, for health or for pain.
We choose the twists and turns of our life
because we’re scared to go the other way.
We’re scared of what waits around the corner, what lies at the end of the day.
So we twist and turn to avoid this choice and the other.
We twist and turn so we won’t be bothered.
Then we complain about the way life goes
how we always wind up somewhere we never intended to go.
We curse the labyrinth and its Creator
but in the end we may find we are greater
Greater than we were when we entered the maze
Wiser, smarter, and ready to greet those days
Those days after the maze where ask our questions and find our answers
Where the maze’s creator stands in all his grandeur.
We take back our curses and bow at his feet
For the maze has brought us out of suffering into an eternal feast.
From Fingertips to Fiction 