Characters

We found ourselves in someone else’s story

and the characters we were cast as,

we didn’t know them, didn’t know

what words and actions, on their part,

would put us in good graces,

or let us even know where we stood

Then we remembered: this is our story.

We own the tale in which these people 

think we’re something other than what we are,

and may harbor expectations

that we act in ways to please them,

ways about which we have no clue

And grace — the only way we’ll really find it

is to float up free from story altogether,

to hold their words and gestures

in the kindest light

and count on Spirit —

the universal breath that we all share —

to braid our lives together in its course.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 18, 2016