For many years now 
I’ve carried baggage in my brain.
Memories, thoughts and feelings 
I allowed to cause me pain.

So absorbed with ‘what if’ thoughts 
and lots of over thinking. 
Reacting at presumed offenses,
eyes hiding tears behind blinking.

Struggling to hold on to self-worth
and looking for validation.
Rarely letting me just be,
denying thy mental self a vacation.

I searched high and low
for relief from brain pain.
Some days I felt much better
while on others the tears would rain.

Looking for answers in words, looks and people,
basing my value on them.
Oh the power I gave away
while lost in my own search for zen.

Today I proclaim to start to let go,
stop letting thoughts control me.
In the quest for zen, step one has begun
as I stop letting pain define who I’ll be.

(c) alaurilee
Lauri Halterman

(Prompted by ‘A New Earth’ by Eckhart Tolle)