Haibun: To Be Alive

Pushing through the Sonoran Desert when the sun is scorching, the terrain becomes sharp. And without warning you can have a cactus needle deep into your foot.

But, as in life, giving up can make a bad trek turn worse. You just have to finish. So as in life, to stop is to be eaten by the surroundings.

So as the teachers go back to school in a pandemic, as the entrepreneur picks herself up, yet again, from a bad client that might still bring down her dream, or as the heartbroken boy wipes away his tears, we each keep going. To be alive is to more than survive, it’s to get energy when we push past our breaking points and keep going. It’s the energy we find in redefining ourselves, to ourself, in the world we never thought existed.

rugged, not ragged,

desert juts jagged. rocks. thorns.

summer heat added