Everything is going to be okay
Everything is going to be okay.
That’s what we believe as children
When our days are set before us,
all-day, every day.
Meals, school, play, bath, bed.
Structure wraps around us like
a swaddled baby.
We are safe.
Meals, school, play, bath bed.
And before bed, Mama always says,
“Everything is going to be okay.”
We fall off bikes and skin our knees.
We get bullied at school and cry ourselves to sleep,
thinking nothing will ever get better,
But in the morning when the sun rises we know,
Everything is going to be okay.
As children, we feel that strong, higher power,
God, family, the order of the Universe,
We don’t understand, and we don’t question
that everything will be okay.
We just know.
We go to bed each night warm in flannel blankets
and sleep a deep, peaceful sleep.
Then we grow up,
And we realize that WE are responsible for the structure.
WE are the ones planning the days set before us,
meals, kids, jobs, pets, bed.
(Not a lot of play).
We suddenly see the Oz behind the curtain,
Wars, disease, accidents, poverty, hunger,
The injustice of it all, and realize the magic and safety was all an illusion.
So then we start to ask, and plead, and beg,
to anyone who will listen,
“Is everything going to be okay?”
We look for reassurance in the faces around us.
and try every day to recreate that safe,
happy, structured world of our youth,
that heaven on earth.
We escape into backyard gardens,
books, movies, sleep,
But we always have to wake up and return to life.
Doctor, counsellor, spouse, friend,
God!
Please, please tell me,
Is everything going to be okay?!
In the end, we realize,
that everything is not going to be okay.
Not here, anyway.
And accepting this, ironically,
lets us finally exhale,
We finally exhale,
And breathe in
A different kind of peace.
The peace that surpasses all understanding.
Where there are no more tears,
or death, or crying, or pain.
So we hold onto the faith,
that one day,
in the end,
Yes,
God holds us in His hands,
like the child we once were,
and tells us once and for all,
Once and for all, my child,
“Everything is going to be okay.”
- Rochelle Pearson