Life begins – a new soul or a soul’s return
In a new shell for a short spell
Vivid colour, senses splashed and dazzled
Sounds abound, images formed and framed
Myriad memories compiled and filed
Social forces press in and push on the sensitive psyche
Peer pressure pulls the pupil from parental power
Be cool, kids rule, school’s for fools
Heed the herd, needle the nerd, in-group preferred
The teen machine fueled by fast-forming fashions
and fads flaming then fading
Drive the child’s developmental direction
until the sufficiently socialized specimen is sent out
into the wide world run by the world-wide web
Then the doubts deepen and questions beckon
Who am I really, now that the social factory has
spit me out and closed the door?
What school, what program, what career to pursue?
Maybe my childhood religion and child’s faith is the way?
I’ll try that for a while, okay,
Then they meet, two souls in that bowl
and conclude that God or the universe
has put them together; it all feels right,
Doubts, differences, cognitive dissonances create
cracks in the cocoon and wound the two
as the faith-based family facade splits and founders,
Then, maybe then, the soul says softly that
It’s time to get real and realize that
you are not here to follow another script
But rather to go within and discern your
own path and be true to yourself, and
Follow your old soul’s dreams, desires and intentions
Then you will be a gift to the world
and will be right with the universe.