My Warrior Path (Book 6)

Quiet Reflection

Every year
The day before
My birthday
I sit and go over
Every positive thing
That happened that year

It's my own
Quiet reflection
34 was a good year
It started in the Bahamas
On a dive boat

Where I spent my birthday week
The day of
I got to check #3
Off my bucket list
I dove a blue hole
It's beauty and majesty
Was epic

I came home and celebrated
With friends and family
Went dancing in NYC
With friends

I walked in the NYC Halloween parade
As usual and met a random man
Who danced with me up 6th Avenue
In November, I went to Denver
For school, my first in-residence trip

I met and made many friends
Got a chance to spend time with
My childhood friend too
It was a busy but awesome weekend

I made the decision to spend
New Years Eve at home
Not because I couldn't find
Anywhere to go but just because
I didn't want to

I got my New Years gifts
A 3 foot tall nutcracker and 2 smaller ones
That's all I wanted anyways

In April, I went on a cruise with my mom
It was fun except the scuba diving in Aruba
Left me with bronchitis afterwards
Meanwhile, I continued with school

Summer came and with it
A big break from studying
One that I requested because I needed it
My health was and is always
Number one

I also became an active volunteer
For MEadvocacy.org
I have been helping with various projects
Looking to revitalize the website as well

July offered no PTSD triggers for
The first time in 3 years
A reprieve much needed
In order to celebrate what was to come

August 1st came around
3 years since my Miracle!
I am so blessed to be alive
I will always have ME
But it doesn't own or define me anymore

Then the trip
The big trip
The 3.5 week trip
To my birth country
I went with my mom
Nearly 29 years since I've laid eyes
On Belarus

My mom went back 11 years ago without me
So now it was my turn
Though a treatment trip this was
To strengthen my nervous & immune systems
We spent time in our birth city

Visiting the house my grandfather built
The location of where my mom gave birth
To me
My great aunts apartment building
Friends of my mom's joined us

I remembered only one
And she was the most fun
So many of my memories
Were verified
We visited my father's birth city too

Where we lived later on
Our apartment building
My kindergarten
And many cemeteries

We cleaned and had two grave sites
Rebuilt for my great grandfather,
Older brother
And great grandmother
None of whom I've ever met
But had visions about

Two weeks we spent by the lake in the woods
Healing before returning home
It is now September
School had restarted
It is my last day of 34

I want to do a lot now
For my own future
35 onward
I've come full circle
Blessed for another year
Ready to roll

My quiet reflection
Cemented my goals and dreams
For another 365 and onward