New Beginnings

author: Felicity Chapman

title: New Beginnings

written: October 2006

Aching for the woman I used to know.

Her laugh was hearty,

her body fit,

her time her own.

My time now measured,

the air thick with responsibility.

How can she be found in this world of restriction?

Reprieve.

Inhale again the sweet taste

of freedom.

We meet again, a heady reunion.

Passion felt for adventure,

philosophy,

the outside world.

Returning: will the undertow prove too powerful?

Determined and tempered she emerges,

changed,

but not diluted.

Reconnected with the selves of the past:

some need space to grow,

some need to be let go.

But losses not the focus anymore.

A new beginning – a definition of self.

She has now the lioness’s pride,

and a home

for her heart.

I am now a mother.

Some things I have lost,

but much

I have gained.

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