"What I Lost and What I Found" by Meredith Ann Lang

I lost myself in my own darkness. I found myself in my own darkness. I lost myself in my own light and found myself there, too. I have continued to lose and find myself in the shifting shades of life. I have lost myself in the corners of my mind, and I have had to peel and pry back the edges to find myself lurking there again, wedged under some small spaces. In those spaces, I must root around and pick up the broken pieces of myself that were scattered when I lost myself. I glue them back together carefully, so that they resemble a whole part of something more recognizable. I keep finding these pieces hiding under all beams and struts that have caved in from the dark storms that blew in and caused them to be lost in the first place. They have scattered far and wide. I journey to pick them and carry them, oh so carefully, so that they can continue to be pieced together. The renovation continues, a years-long project to reconstruct a building that will last. I lost all the parts, but I am finding them again. I am finding them again, so that I may build something beautiful.