This is really hard for those who’ve never been here before

I remember the feeling

Hitting a crisis like a new land

With no reference

Strange and eerie

As if the ground fell away

And you scratch to find a toe hold

Bracing, you steel yourself

Ah, but to those who remember

We know this terrain

And we have heard all the alarms before

But, you say, it’s never happened like this

True, it’s always a new version of collapse

Of crisis

It’s always a new creation

A new challenge

But the signs, the feelings

The reactions, the upheavel

It’s always the same energy

And it passes

However resolved

However overcome,

Or just moved past.

And we find ourselves one day

in a new normal

And it goes on

And we’re ok.

Photo from Unsplash, Roberto Nickson