Shakedown Cruise

So, most people ask me if I am afraid and the answer is yes and no. Of course it will be nerve wracking to constantly not know anything. How to use the phone - how to grocery shop - do you shake hands when you meet a man, woman, child, peer? Just everything! But, no I am not afraid. I have a pretty sturdy faith in the goodness of people and the universe. It's time to do this- I have felt it for a while now. Here is a poem I wrote this winter while I waited to learn about this adventure . . .

Shakedown Cruise

The Universe will take care of you.
she tells me
in faith
and I listen
to my elder
with trepidation
the tethers coming unfast as we speak
the tide turning
no anchors on board
no map, no compass
no stars

She cannot offer charts to me but has traveled this route before herself
and here she sits safely at home
proof that
one can depend on the Universe

My heart knows this -
Or is it my mind?
They argue so!
I have trouble discerning
spliced together as they are
on my jury-rigged ship’s shake down cruise!

I wait
for a lift,
and the stars to reveal themselves,
someone to catch the line