And suddenly today
I feel the way I felt
when we were young  –
grown up and setting out to find
whatever was the journey that was called our lives,
and coming back together for a holiday,
the major strife of growing up behind us,
creating home with laughter, as families do

Today my sense of failing falls away,
and I see we have been living well –
each of us has our own sufficient pile
of life lived

And I see there is a grace
that doesn’t measure things like that –
grace that unfolds second by second
through all the seconds
in which we live.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 12, 2023