An Anchor or a Sail

“She was deciding whether she wanted
  an anchor or a sail.”
It is the same choice my Patty
  would have liked examining
  so many years ago.
But she wasn’t wise then.

That would come much later.
Then she needed love,
  she needed security,
  she needed stability,
  and she needed joy.

She welcomed what I offered
I was her personal anchor,
  to love her and keep her safe.
It was much later,
  with the children raised
  and no longer needy,
  that she discovered one day
  that she really wanted to fly
  and now she needed a sail.

But I was not a sail.
I didn’t have the bright colors.
I didn’t have the capacity
  to grab the winds of life
  and let them carry us
  into the unknown.

I was still the anchor,
  still the harbor of safe love.

It was during this time
  that the cursed illness
  took most of the wind
  from her own sail.

Now she needed the anchor
  as life tried its best
  to crash her on the rocks.
And I was there for her,
  holding her secure
  against the tricky winds,
  as she dreamed
   of unrealized flight.

I think that she was glad then
  that she had chosen
  an anchor to love.

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