After a long day of
realizing I am human–
Meeting and failing to meet
needs that rise like
Great ocean waves
and fall and break and
pull everything under
with a force that could
drown you.
How insignificant I seem,
standing in their wake–
looking out from
the blistering shore
to where the golden horizon
drops off
the edge of the world.
You could never swim there if you tried.

Just take one wave at a time
(I talk to myself as
I buckle all four children
into the car and climb
into the driver’s seat.)

We are driving to
the house where I grew up
which, today, will be filled again
with brothers and sisters,
the laughter of children,
and the fragrance of late summer lilies.
I will see the people
that I used to say goodnight to
every night…
The house where
my mother and father
were the parents of small children,
meeting needs
that rose like waves,
wave after wave
and I never once
heard them complain.

The sun has gone behind storm clouds.
A great rain pours down.
We are listening to my favorite song, and
From the rear-view mirror
I see my daughter in profile
singing along.
The world is cast in a silver glow.
The babies are asleep.
The sound of rain is like
the heartbeat 
of the whole world.

In that moment
I am reminded
That my own heart beats.
The hearts
Of my children
Are pulsing with life.

Driving, crying,
Drawing in a deep breath
Of nitrogen-oxygen-
rich air and
Drinking it like 
A cold glass of clear water,
I realize, 
for the second time today
How profoundly
(and fearfully, wonderfully)
human 
I am.