Church member, Monica Jesensky wrote this poem at a difficult point in her life, as she struggled with depression and loss. After the poem is a special note from the author.
Follow Thy Path
(C) 1992
By Monica Jesensky
One finds that they are on the path to leave,
Yet they wonder where their path will weave.
They have found family in their friends,
Now those single woven threads all are ends.
The sand of time has found yet another path,
To of which the rope of my life now hath.
There is a odd feeling of a sad weak ending,
Even in the time of this threads beginning.
One leaves behind all called as friends,
They find that there are new thread ends.
The rope will continue at one end to thin,
Even as the other end, new threads will win.
One never truly leaves any other behind,
Their path goes on new threads to find.
There will always be change in ones life,
It is never the way, that you miss the knife.
It will stick one with depression and pain,
Yet in the end it is the one who will gain.
The people one will meet are the new thread,
That replace the old in the path you do head.
One finds lack of friends in the path ahead,
Yet one will find them in that path of dread.
The ones left behind are in truth still there,
Though of their presence one is not aware.
One can still in their time visit with them,
The present problem is the question of when.
There is monetary fear present there as well,
But it’s lessened if on it one does not dwell.
There is always a way that the path is made,
One will find their way to life in the shade.
Let the one analyze all that they doth hath,
For the one it will make it an easier path.
There is much less in the path known as old,
Step forth find the new path and be ye bold.
Let not fear and pain stop the way ye tread,
Let not fear cause you the future to dread.
To stay behind is to stagnate and or die,
Let not your fear of future become this lie.
Background from the author:
At a time when I was dealing with loss over a friend I was close to leaving the state and also my own self moving to a different town … I found depression at first .. then it came to me .. inspiration for a poem that would not only help me but also help others who might read it and whom also had similar issues. God inspired me to use a rope as an allegory to a path lost and gained at the same time. He further inspired me to show in the poem that the Sands of Time can be woven in two ways … an end and a beginning. As a person who sees a rope as an allegory to each of our own lives .. God inspired me to see it had two sides. One loss and one gain. Also the mention of the knife is an allegory to the pain that change will invariably bring to each of us. There is mention of a Path of Dread .. this refers to the dread we may feel at the need to start over .. to seek out new friends at our new location. For many this is a dread they experience .. but find they must .. and they do .. and new friends do result. But are our past friends we have moved away from or whom have moved away from us .. gone .. or just somewhere else more distant where it takes more effort and more time to reach out to them or likewise for them to reach out to us. This brings to mind the word vacation day trips or longer if the situation works out as such. However .. it is true that often we fail to remember past friends from different places as often as once we did. Sometimes we intend to write them art first .. often .. then semi often … then for most of us we do tend to move the contacts to farther and farther apart or not at all or maybe once yearly at holiday card season if even then. The shame is .. often good friends of the past become just that .. OF THE PAST .. because we choose to let this happen by giving in to stress of the new place or work or other factors that rule much of our days .. and this can include the factor of now having some new friends at our new place whom have filled the slot the old friends once did .. did we choose to forget the past friends .. or just sort of let the day .. week .. month .. year and so forth pass before we remember to reach out again. There is mention of monetary fear in the poem as for some that is an issue in a move. But for most of us that fear does work itself out as our lives settle in the new place and we find what we must to get by .. new friends .. new place … new job .. whatever is involved.
