Stage
By Amy Li
There are different stages of life:
The stages of your professional life,
The stages of your personal life.
Whether you realize it or not,
You are playing the character of your life
On that stage
There is the stage of performing arts
Where you sing, dance, tell jokes, recite poems,
sharing intellectual wisdom and ideas
in full spotlight
you may or may not able to see
the audience in front of your stage
each of them playing the characters of their lives
smiling, laughing, crying,
surprised, amazed, or intrigued
and taking every single thing you say, every single thing you do,
home
to empower or challenge that character of their life
Then there is the stage
Where numbers really really matter
for you and your loved ones
because you are battling for your life
and you are praying the number will be as small as possible
Stage I, Stage II, Stage III, what? Stage IV
Oh, guess what, you luck out, because you are stage IV A
So your life is saved from cancer because God, or some genius out there,
decided to put an A, B, or C after the IV.
In Indian culture
every 25 years is a stage
so Stage IV is the last stage of your life,
so live it fully, love wholeheartedly, smile beautifully,
sing, dance, tell jokes, recite poems
Share intellectual wisdom and ideas
you don’t need a full spotlight
because you are playing the character of your life
enjoy while it lasts,
take a deep breath.
Suck it all in.
Stage IV can be just as beautiful as Stage I,
or any stage of your life,
professional or personal
In or out of spotlight
with or without an audience.
Art by Deann Acton, our Artist of the Month.
