MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE

If I took a bottle and cast it into the sea
Would it someday come back to torment me?

If I listed all my sadness, worries, and pain
Would the sea take it away never to be felt again?

Is it possible that life's tempestuous, violent, and fiery storms
Could be captured in a bottle? From my heart could I remove the thorns?

If I wrote about every hurt and every salty tear
Made a list naming and describing every fear

Then put that list in a bottle and then corked it up tight
Would nightmares stop waking me in the middle of the night?

If in humility, I got down on my knees and sent up a prayer
Would God's angels carry it down to a watery eternal grave?

Or would that bottle be carried to the white beach in a distant land
Would it be tossed with shells, blown by wind, and covered with sand?

Or would it be found and lifted up by a curious brown native hand
Would the cork hold tight against the efforts of child, woman, or man?

If opened like Pandora's box, will the pain be carried on the wind
Through black inky nights and through boiling skies to be returned to me?

I wake up with a jolt! The bottle, the message, the list was no more than a dream
The pain in my heart never left. Was never carried away on rolling waves it seems.

The loss of my son will always be keenly felt and that is as it should be.
Through loss I have learned what is most dear and precious to me.

If I write a message, place it in a bottle, and toss it into the sea
It will not be about pain but about courage, hope, love, and family.

These things and my God are what is most precious to me.

*******************************************************

"If some lives form a perfect circle, others take shape in ways we cannot predict or always understand. Loss has been a part of my journey. But it has also shown me what is precious. So has a love for which I can only be grateful." --- Theresa Osborn ---