Aaron McHugh
  • Start Here
  • Book
  • Podcast
    • All Episodes
  • Field Reports
  • Speaking
  • Workshop
    • Explorers Wanted
  • Free Guides
    • Learning to Pace Yourself: How to Keep Going
    • Road Trip Guide to California’s HWY 1
    • Free 7 day Course to Restoring Balance
    • 99 Ways to Navigate Your Best Life

Aaron McHugh| < 1 minute read

A Poem: Ten Years of Living Forward

Ten rings later in the oak tree.
Radius etchings tell the truth of living forward.
Closer to fine.
Empty bedroom, not to dinner. Quiet deafening disappearance.
No search party assembled.
Empty wheelchair affixed for helium flight.
Unconvincing logic to limbic smells and sounds, “Was that her shadow-her cry?”
Hair clippers to mourn. The reminder of not fine.
Staggering, limping, walking, living again.
Ring seared chronicles of summer’s laughing, winter’s ruminating, spring’s living.
All the roots go deeper when it’s dry.

800 balloon fixed to Hadley’s wheelchair representing her spiritual flight into eternity.

I wrote this poem to reflect my decade journey of learning to live forward from our daughter Hadley’s death in 2011. I envisioned a tree’s aging rings, each annual etching telling the story, some thick with growth, others thin but still standing. To live authentic and wholehearted, we embrace our humanity’s spectrum and remind our souls that God is with us and for us, even when.

Share:
About the Author Aaron McHugh

Aaron McHugh is an executive transformation coach, enterprise agility consultant, writer, podcaster, adventurer, and author of Fire Your Boss: Discover Work You Love Without Quitting Your Job.

More about Aaron

Related Posts

Experiment More

If I had a magic wand, I would give you the compulsion to experiment MORE. Try something new, a tiny step, or a radical idea. Start today. Certainty rarely exists. […]

Read more

Why I believe Work-Life Balance is a Myth

Let go of work-life balance and embrace the unforced rhythms of a fully integrated life. I used to think that work-life balance was achievable.Now I believe it is a myth.No […]

Read more

Navigate a life worth living

Sign up to receive regular emails about living a fulfilling and meaningful life

Sign Up

Copyright © 2023 Aaron McHugh

About

  • About Aaron
  • Book
  • Joy Bus
  • Contact

Learn

  • Podcast
  • Field Reports

Events

  • Speaking
  • Workshop
  • Coaching

Free Guides

  • HWY 1
  • How to Keep Going
  • Restoring Balance
  • 99 Ways

Follow Aaron