Sometimes you find yourself in life’s death grip
Still fighting battles you thought you would have overcome
Still searching for answers to questions long overdue
Still vexed by life’s annoyingly niggling problems
Wondering if there is any sense in it all
Or some grand design and purpose to life’s complexities
You keep hope alive and burning
Believing that tomorrow could be the day
That your prayers are answered and your desires met
And you would have reprieve from the crushing weight
Of life’s battles, troubles, and tears
Yet, each day brings nothing new
And you wonder for the umpteenth time
Why bother? Why hope? Why wait?
Why think that things will be any different
Tomorrow, a week, a month, a year, or a decade from now
And while you ponder and think
Lost in thought and worldly cares
You suddenly realize that you are gasping and struggling for breath
As if life has taken you by the throat in a vice-like grip
Bearing down with crushing weight refusing to let go
Somewhere in your mind’s recesses
You hear the words of a song reminding you
That you must find your point to exhale
It is then you realize that you have been holding your breath
Waiting, Hoping, Praying, Believing, Reaching
And have forgotten to live and laugh and breathe
You remember you must exhale
Or risk death by asphyxiation
You must find a point where you exhale, release and breathe
Remembering you are not a bundle of problems
But a living breathing purposeful being
Exhale! Release the weight on your chest
Breathe! Roll the burdens off your shoulders
Move! Reposition yourself
Stretch! Discover new horizons
Envision! And behold things with new eyes and vision
Find your point. Exhale, breathe and live
© Faminu Imabong, 2022
Inspired in part by Whitney Houston’s Exhale (shoop, shoop)
What do you think?