Lanterns in the Ruins: Searching for the Self I Lost

From Wednesday evening’s reflections group:

Quote:

“Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.” ―Henry David Thoreau

Prompt:

Write about searching: searching in, searching out…

I woke in the stillness

and found I was missing.

I looked through the mirror

But the face there felt distant.

a sketch of someone I once was,

edges blurred by time and silence.

I searched in the corners of memory,

dusty boxes of laughter and tears,

hoping for a name, a moment, a spark

might call me back to myself.

I walked through forests of thought.

paths tangled with doubt,

lantern in hand, light trembling—

Yet every step forward

seemed to circle back.

I found promises unkept,

echoes of words unsaid,

love that frayed like old fabric,

never quite strong enough to hold.

I found a heart weary but waiting.

beating beneath the rubble,

still daring to believe

in the possibility of wholeness.

And somewhere, quietly,

beneath all the ruins and noise,

I found her—

the girl I had lost,

sitting in patience,

waiting for me

to see her again.

Thanks for reading! — Javid Malik