Your Goldilocks Moment?

I'm going out on a limb this week and sharing something a little different. I've admitted in the past that I like poetry, but did you know that I used to write poetry too? Eek.

In fact, I used to write a lot. But all of that creativity came to a crashing halt as soon as I became a parent. It was sad for a bit and then is just was.

But almost eleven years later, the night after my most recent surgery, I woke up from an anesthesia-addled sleep with a poem tumbling out. I had to pay attention and write it down.

Here goes...

Goldilocks
​
Once upon a time there was a girl named Goldilocks.
She was one of many, as you know,
but this one grew up in an elevator building.

​
The people there were like bears,
slobbery,
hungry for young Goldilocks.
​
She said 'no' in the only way she knew how -
balling up her every asset,
compressing them in her fist so hard
they turned to tiny diamonds,
which she swallowed quick.
​
They rattled around her insides,
precious and foreign.
​
Unrelated, she developed cancer
at the age of 39
and then again at 41.

​
She had two goldilocks of her own by then,
precious and foreign,
uncompressed.
​
By now she knew what the name meant -
​Be gentle with me:
without pity,
without greed.

So why did I choose to bear my soul and make everyone (especially myself) uncomfortable? Well...I wanted to share part of the meaning of the poem. The goldilocks part.

After my surgery (which sucked) I felt suddenly able to articulate a need (which was a revelation): Be gentle with me: without pity, without greed.

In the fairy tale, Goldilocks doesn't ever get exactly what she wants, but she keeps asking, keeps trying. There is something inspiring in that.

So... on what issue are you a Goldilocks, asking for what is just right, what you really need?