Nietzche via Joseph Campbell

This is something i am currently working on:

"Nietzsche was the one who did the job for me. At a certain moment in his life, the idea came to him of what he called “the love of your fate.” Whatever your fate is, whatever the hell happens, you say, “This is what I need.” It may look like a wreck, but go at it as though it were an opportunity, a challenge. If you bring love to that moment - not discouragement - you will find the strength is there. Any disaster that you can survive is an improvement in your character, your stature, and your life. What a privilege! This is when the spontaneity of your own nature will have a chance to flow.

Then, when looking back at your life, you will see that the moments which seemed to be great failures followed by wreckage were the incidents that shaped the life you have now. You’ll see that this is really true. Nothing can happen to you that is not positive. Even though it looks and feels at the moment like a negative crisis, it is not. The crisis throws you back, and when you are required to exhibit strength, it comes.”

Joseph Campbell

Forever After

Once upon a time
pearls fell from my lips
when I spoke.
In a red cloak
I had discourse with wolves and bears.
I danced in crystal slippers
and fairy folk befriended me.

I put aside the fanciful, as one must,
and toiled long years in the rational world.
But I've grown old now and lingering
and on a soft day like this of mist and shine
with sundrops sparkling in the damp wood
I feel the tug of magic.
I hear my companions call:
fairy wings, the witch's cackle,
my sad prince's sigh.
And that old troll.
How he laughs
and slaps his knee
over the tricks
life played me.

Bridget Harwell

Last Snow

Propped up to take a pill
to have her face washed,
her hair combed,
she saw upon the window sill
a mound of snow.
She remembered ...
that empty space
after school
between there and there.
Snow brushing her face
heat rising from the collar
of her opened coat.
Scentless air
and the soft, slow walk
through a field of all possibilities.

Bridget Harwell