Aging Mist

How telltale this vapor of emotion.

To be the toddler with repeated pratfalls,

The tearful eyes filling with the plea.

Kiss it better.

Mama?

Papa?

From mist-infused relationships,

Where teacher,

Classmate,

Young love

All introduce befogging of another kind,

Often obscuring growth to the next level.

But…

Decades past will have served growth well,

Sometimes with hard lessons

Mystifying the eyes of discovery,

While inevitably

Evaporating into watermarks of learning.

How restless life’s misty events,

Catapulting the heart and mind

Forward into the denser overcast

Maturity designed to withstand

The more age-related blunders,

The ones that shed doubt,

Often driving life into hiding

As the shadowy ghostlike haze

Envelopes the mind,

The heart,

And leaves one beholden

To darkness,

Faith,

Trust,

And the next deep breath

Living fully

Rejects the cataracts of cessation,

Opting instead

To fuse all the senses

Into one glorious

Celebration,

As the fog from afar

Pauses,

Gives time,

Allows one to determine the final effort,

The one that may instigate clarity of appreciation,

Translucency of emotional acceptance,

Lucidity of anticipation,

And belief that there is reward

Beyond the aging mist.