I can’t know what it will be like
to be eighty.
Ninety.
One hundred.
How could I?
Perhaps
I will enter those decades
much as I have the seventh —
one ordinary day
becoming the next.
That is how much
of this human journey
has passed.
One day turns into the next,
and before long,
another year lies flattened
beneath the weight
of current events
and daily obligations.
Still,
I am left wondering
what this life is about.
I learned,
sitting in eighth-grade science class,
that for every action
there is
an equal
and opposite reaction.
It took me a lifetime
to recognize
that lesson
everywhere.
Nature,
always seeking balance.
Ma’at,
weighing my heart
against the weight
of a feather.
Somehow,
it no longer vexes me.
Having clarified,
as best I can,
the essence of who I am,
ever sifting
the kernels from the chaff,
the who
from the what,
always seeking clarity
amidst the chaos
of living.