What I Learned

What I learned

Little girls learn early on that marriage is the goal. They romanticize and idealize an institution that guarantees nothing. Though thought to be permanent, it rarely is. Divorce is always an option.

Momma told me, “never to count on nothin’. Marriage don’t last and love fades.” She said few things in life are certain. She never told me that death was certain, that was always understood. But she said what was: pain and heartbreak. She told me of the pain caused by love. Like a rotted tooth aching, pulsing, reminding you of its presence when you least expect it. Of heartbreak, a vital organ littered like a container of glitter in a desert dust storm.

Looking back, I learned all that she withheld. Maybe she did it so that I wouldn’t think it was too easy, or maybe she did it because even she didn’t know. But right now, I know; and, today I won’t withhold. I’ll tell you that your rotten tooth should be removed, and that glitter looks best spread out. That in time your wounds will heal.

The pain will eventually fade once the decay is gone. As for future pain, I warn you: take the proper preventative steps, follow the advice given, and hopefully, the decay doesn’t return. Stay healthy, and stay strong.

In that dusty red orange cloud of heartbreak, you stand in the center. That dust will beat you down! But guess what?! You will get back up and you will watch that cloud settle. And you will know a calm like no other as you see the beauty in sparkling sand dunes that are only beautiful because you made them at way. The glitter on the top will twinkle in the sun. You should smile.

Momma never told me this. She never told me that pain goes away and that broken hearts heal. She never told me of the person who emerges in the end. But today I tell you. In the end, that person is you. Only now, because of your past, you are much much better.

I encourage you to drink from the pond.
That pond will become a part of you, and you a part of it.
The name? The name of the pond?
Of course I shall tell you, but then, you already know
Serenity.