No One Ever Told Me

No One Ever Told Me

(Of the Glory of Growing Older)

a poem by: Susan Frybort

No one told me

it would be like this —

how growing older

is another passage

of discovery

and that aging is one

grand transformation,

and if some things become torn apart

lost along the way,

many other means show up

to bring me closer

to the center of my heart.

No one ever told me

if whatever wonder

waits ahead

is in another realm

and outside of time.

But the amazement, I found, 

within the here and now

that I stumble

and trip my way

through, also

lead me

gracefully

home. 

And no one told me

that I would ever see

an earth so strong

and fragile, or

a world so sad

and beautiful.

And I surely didn't know

I’d have all this life

yet in me

or such fire

inside my bones.