The Year of the Poet XII February 2025

Foreword Curiosity, Fear, Loneliness It is a fact that shortened days, less daylight, colder weather and post-holiday stress can strike anyone during this time of year. To combat these feelings, we humans tend to make resolutions about how we are going to change. Often, by February, they have all fallen to the wayside.

The tendency to make amends to ourselves for perceived shortcomings often begins with the curiosity of where we could be. As we age, we experience life from a new world view. Sometimes that view is clouded by health issues, empty nesting and a lack of companionship from either death or breakups. The need to evaluate can move us toward a harsher than necessary assessment. The manifestation of our discontent is real, and pride may make us close ranks.

The fear of being discovered as lacking will keep one from healing. The ideal we have been existing under, in my case, for many years was simply a necessary smoke screen of contentment. It wasn't until I stepped away from that life that I was able to discover a new way of being. The fragility of a half life eroded all my visible edges. The ensuing loneliness of hiding myself from myself kept me from being all I am capable of.

Life is not easy; living is not easy. Find your curiosity of tomorrow and you can let go of the fear and the loneliness. Nothing lasts forever. The future is not finite. Our job is to create a tomorrow that we can welcome.

Gail Weston Shazor Author, Poet, Humanitarian