As silence stretched us oceans apart
and dusk deepened,
I forgot the stars,
the sound of the rain,
the early springtime budding blooms;
I was, instead, afraid,
afraid of saying more than I meant,
afraid of saying nothing;
We were afraid to want
for fear of loss and failure,
afraid of sounding desperate;
We were afraid to trust,
afraid to hope,
afraid of our own happiness;
The silence deepened,
the ocean grew more vast between us,
until our fears grew more monstrous still,
swirling, tumbling, and tightening;
And when my eyes had grown
accustomed to the dark,
I saw that I was afraid
only of my own shadow.
An Indomitable Grace 