Everything you’ll ever need to know is within you; the secrets of the universe are imprinted on the cells of your body. Dan Millman

I lost touch with my body this past year.
Became a floating head, ferried atop a hat rack.

Consumed by the life lessons I was learning,
I lost sight of how much easier

the growing pains are to bear
when I’m out walking in the world.

My constant cravings and ever-tightening clothes
went unnoticed, my brain too preoccupied to process.

But the fatigue of self-absorption is not easily dismissed,
nor, after a time, will the sentences flow.

The memory of walking is imprinted in my body, beckoning me outside
the way the siren call of the ocean lures sailors out to sea.

It cannot be ignored. It cannot be denied.
This place I most keenly feel my son.

Out in nature, a dog by my side,
Jimmy is with still me, just as he was then.

Matching my strides, pointing out the magic all around us.
Sending me signs, reminding me to breathe.

For all the time I spend conjuring Jimmy with my words,
his essence is embodied within mine.

His microchimeric cells inside me are pulsing with energy,
reaching out toward the life all around me.