What I do for a living is to reparent people. ~ Debbie Rowland

We share the stories of our lives
and currents crisscross them, themes,
often of domineering parents,
on insecure mothers raising insecure daughters,
of perfectionist fathers demanding flawless progeny.
Our parents’ admonitions echo through ages,
as do their silence about crucial topics
or their insistence on their young
building lives better than they could manage.
We come with resentment, with phobias,
with insecurities, with well-rehearsed roles
of who we “ought” to be. It’s not our fault.
It’s not the fault of our elders. We’re human,
like they, and that’s what we absolutely inherit.
But our lives need not mirror the refrain forever.
We can reparent ourselves with love and understanding,
becoming those we admire, accepting the good
of our kin and our friends and reverberating that.
We can seek a Power who know us, loves us,
and can mold us into new me’s no matter
how late we wait to grow up.