It’s not easy

To change a lifetime

Of training

Into a new way

Of being…

To deflect the darts

Of anger or insecurity

Aimed at you

From a place of fear…

Absorbing those injuries

you understand you have to

Feel

To be real again…

It’s not easy

To change a lifetime

Of conditioning 

To uncover a fresh

And loving

Heart,

A mind that rejects

Painful judgments of the ego,

An awareness

That denies the appearance

Of strength

By the tearing down

Of another…

It is not easy

Becoming the person

You have always 

Hidden…

Even from yourself.

Shelly Aspenson