Integration

Integration

a poem in three movements

I. Recognition

Something in me grew tired

of pretending the fracture was gone.

Tired of calling silence peace

and distance maturity.

I noticed how parts of me

lingered in doorways—

not leaving,

not fully entering—

waiting to see if it was safe this time.

This was not failure.

This was the moment I finally saw

what I had been carrying

instead of turning away.

II. Meeting

I stopped demanding resolution

before listening.

Stopped asking pain to explain itself

in language neat enough to forgive.

I let grief speak in its own tempo.

Let anger stand without apology.

Let the child arrive exactly as she was—

unfixed, unfinished,

still worthy of presence.

Integration asked only this:

Can you stay

without choosing sides?

So I stayed.

Breathing.

Witnessing.

Not repairing—

receiving.

III. Embodiment

Now the voices no longer compete.

They inform.

They soften each other.

Joy no longer fears being naïve.

Strength no longer hides its tremble.

The shadow walks beside the light

instead of behind it.

I move through the world

as one body again—

layered, honest, intact.

Not whole because nothing hurt,

but whole because

nothing was left behind.

This is integration:

a life lived

from inside itself.

— Flower InBloom 🌿