What it all comes down to

© Adrian Newell from Unsplash

is learning to let go.
Just when you begin
to get comfortable, along comes
another heart-wrenching goodbye.

Being forced to release
my tenuous hold
on one I love and withstand
an uprooting storm
of impending separation,
I find myself trying to fill a hollow
that cannot be satisfied.

Often, even with the heavens
blue to the horizon,
I hear the distant thunderclaps
of squalls to come.

Pushed to delve deeper
into my practice,
into what it means to carry on,
I slowly begin to feel
a little lighter, the band
around my heart a little looser,
my breath a bit easier.

In a way, we are all preparing
to depart,
each of us under the same sky
raining unstoppable change.

Carolyn Chilton Casas’ poetry has appeared in publications such as Amethyst Review, Braided Way, and Energy Magazine and in anthologies including The Wonder of Small Things: Poems of Peace and Renewal, Thin Spaces & Sacred Spaces, and Women in a Golden State. She is a practicing Reiki Master and teacher who explores ways of healing in the articles she writes for wellness magazines in several countries. More of Carolyn’s work can be found at www.carolynchiltoncasas.com and in her poetry collections Our Shared Breath and Under the Same Sky. Her new book of essays and poems, Unlocking Ordinary Wonders, will be released summer of 2026.

     Pieces on One Earth Sangha
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