Not to be A Slave

to the Past,

nor Other’s Ideas of Who I Am.

Not even My Own.

To Be Who I Am

in Each Moment,

Authentic and Real,

no matter How Tough it May be.

That Others sometimes Accept Me

Better than I do, Myself.

To Help and Share whatever I have,

as No One Ever Makes It

Totally On Their Own.

To Drop what I am Doing

at a Moment’s Notice.

Drop It!

To Leave Behind All that I Thought

Was Mine.

To go Beyond Security

and Wander

Step by Step.

To See it’s All a Journey,

Rather than a Destination.

That People are People,

Wherever I Go.

And that The Heart Creates a Home

Wherever LOVE IS.

That for Every Sacrifice

there comes an Unexpected Gift.

That God could be found

through the Eyes and Laughter of Children.

That Joy shared

brings More Joys

than one person could ever Keep for Oneself.

That Compassionate Strangers

Would Welcome and Embrace Me,

as long as I Allowed Them Fully Into my Heart.

That the Seder Plate Revealed Life’s Challenges:

Bitter Herbs and Salt Water

were the bitter Lessons and Tears

we encounter when we feel Enslaved.

The sacrificial Lamb Shank

teaches that Before The New Comes,

we need to Sacrifice The Old.

The Matzo,

the dear Matzo,

says we can Survive without Levity.

Sometimes we just need to

Drop It!

The Important Thing

Is to Keep Going!

Don’t Give Up!

The Egg is New Life, Rebirth, and Renewal.

Freedom bursting from it’s Shell.

For me, this is The True Passover.

This is Freedom.

This is what it means

Not to be Enslaved.

To Discover

That even when Lost in The Wilderness,

I could Dance, Sing, and Celebrate,

Trusting that Eventually

I would Find The Promised Land:

My Self.

copyright Anupama Deanne Kallman AHA! STORIES

This poem was inspired by my 10 years of teaching pre-K, as well as assisting Rhoda Golstein, director of The Child Nurturing Center in  The Suffolk Y Jewish Community Center of Commack, New York.