wait for me!

The littlest ones, the ones slower and younger and weaker, always bring up the rear.

"Wait for me!" they call out to older and more competent companions -- their brothers and sisters who seem so impossibly big and knowledgeable and assured.

"Wait for me!"

I too want to be happy and fleet and strong.

"Wait for me!"

I too want to be perfect and whole and relaxed.

"Wait for me!"

I can see you up ahead or hear you around some nearby corner or imagine the likely places you might be... places I too want to be.

"Wait for me!"

Have you no pity, no kindness? I am little and weak and slow. I am trying my best and yet always I am in the rear, trying to join your perfectly coherent band, to burn as bright or smell as sweet.

I never quite catch up, never quite make it, never quite attain, never quite ascend ... never become enfolded in some envisioned certainty ...

Until one day, quite by chance, I hear the voice behind me calling ...

"Wait for me!"