Beside the deep well

Beside the deep well of pain we faltered

We only saw black space

A place of defeat and undoing

So it was hard to surrender

Fear enters our heart

For we know we may not survive

In the same form we had before

And yet this descent

Is the price of our transformation

The place where skin is stripped from flesh

And flesh is stripped from bone

Without skin and flesh

Our bones rattle in those deeper spaces

Of wounding and remembering

But there is at all times

A far deeper alchemy going on

For the very thing that strips us

Helps us form new skin and flesh

After wounds have turned to scars

We are wiser, leaner and older

With the weathering of our years

Our hearts, hopefully softer

From the experience

Our soul consents to the process

By which we are changed

And further along the path

We look back to see the deep well

Radiating light