Lilacs in September

The title of this poem is misleading. At first glance, we are made to think it will be about a purple flower in the month of September, but it is something else altogether. The author uses the image of the damaged flower to illustrate a fight for survival. Disaster can attempt to destroy us…
Shocked to the root
like the lilac bush
in the vacant lot
by the hurricane—

whose black branch split
by wind or rain
as the hurricane attempted to destroy the flowers- but there will always be something worth fighting for…
has broken out unseasonably

into these scant ash-
colored blossoms
lifted high as if to say

to passersby
What will unleash
itself in you
when your storm comes?
Reading this poem made me want to answer the question it poses at the end. What will unleash itself in me when my storm comes? I have been through a few rainy days and have always walked through them- without raincoat or umbrella. But the storm has not found me until now. Everything I write about seems to reflect on my life with horses, and it gets to be a bit repetitive. There is justification to be found, however. When one invests such emotion in a part of their life, there are bound to be countless experiences and moments to share. So, another part of a horse story… but I am afraid this is one of the last.

This storm is a storm of proportions unknown to me at the current time. All I know and all I have ever known is shifting, changing, and in some ways, erasing itself. Here is the storm: I am no longer riding. I am selling the horse that I love with all of my heart and how long it will take to sit on another I do not know. I cannot possibly convey the magnitude of this in any words I have right now. And this is only the beginning. To continue, I have to look at Matthew 16:24-27. It reads:
“Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his live will lose, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?”
This is where I find my inspiration. I know that right now I am losing something great, but there is something far greater in return. A strength I never knew I had is unleashing itself within me, and only because the storm finally came.