Featured in the upcoming work, Fleeting Moments of Fierce Clarity: Journal of a New England Poet being released October 28th by Homebound Publications!
Self-sufficient
by L.M. Browning
A stable house cannot be built upon the shifting sand. The mind needs stability. A set of fundamental truths that it need not question. Without this foundation the mind has no anchor to reality and you find yourself adrift in the unknown. Bordering the surreal; lost in the gray between what is real and illusion, unsure what is genuine. Nothing can be built without this foundation—we cannot begin to trust any truth come to without first securing this baseline knowledge.
Years ago, everything that I held to be true from my religion, to my personal relationships, to my preconceived notions of reality, was shaken. The upheaval, while difficult, brought about needed change; however, when long-time certainties were pulled out from under me my mind did struggle while I dwelt in that state of full-doubt.
It is courageous and wise to demand that the truths we are given be justified, no matter the proclaimed authority of the sources. Doubt uncovers lies and in this skepticism can indeed be a virtue. Yet when you call into doubt the entirety of your world be sure to redefine the foundational truths your mind rests upon.
—Connecticut, December 2011
Self-Sufficient
I drown in the what ifs and whys
Live off the hopes
and reach for belief.
Years spent waiting
for a God,
for a lover,
for a father,
for a mother
for a savior
for an answer.
Thinking myself incomplete
without any or all.
The time has come to explore
all that is within this one soul.
…all that I am,
rather than musing further
over all that you could make me.
