This is What I Understand…

This is what I understand. This is what I don’t understand…

I understand that things are hard. I don’t understand why we make things harder.

I understand why the moon looks a little bit different each night when I see it. I don’t understand why I look so much different when I see myself now.

I understand every person has their own struggles, their own point of view, their own pain. I don’t understand why we/they sometimes have to be so mean.

I understand that I need to vigilantly look after my own health, my own boundaries. I don’t understand why sometimes I don’t.

I understand how perspective works in sketching and in people. I understand how perspective shapes our reality. I don’t understand why my drawings always end up so tilted. Also, people. Also, reality.

I understand how important it is to really listen to people. I don’t understand why it seems so often that we can’t.

I understand things are liable to break sometimes. I don’t understand why it seems it’s always the most cherished things, the most treasured things that get broken and why these things are the ones that are so difficult to fix.

I understand how life begins and where people come from. I don’t understand how it ends or where people go.

I understand how important it is to give love. I don’t understand why it’s so hard sometimes to receive it.

(With special thanks to my incomparable writing buddy, Christopher DeLorenzo for this prompt. You always know the need to write at those times when we don’t feel like we can.)