temperance

this has been a week of temperance...extremes of temperature, folding and pounding, turning life inside-out, and bringing out the gold hidden within. it's been a good reminder that this life is a constant, gradual process...a subtle play of light and texture and shadows, measured in centuries and inches. i can't expect to have everything all at once.

still, i am impatient. i want to hurry because i am eager to see what lies ahead. i long to know the answer to every possible question and every decision i make. and i want to believe - even as i know that's not the way the universe always works - that sooner or later, good will come to those who do good; joy will be the reward for those who bring humor to others; opportunity will present itself to those who persist.

times of loss or failure will break the weak, and though fate may make my branches sway, there is no breach. instead, i stoop. i swerve. i tilt. i twist. i bend. i endure hard times, grow and benefit from them, because i have something stronger, deeper even, than fate...something incorruptible by even the harshest of realities: i have hope.