Can I Do This for One Day? - 'Hold Off the Rain'
Cath Parsons
You may have noticed that life is a succession of days that come one at a time. At some point in our cycle of postings and deployments, a simple question became a great tool of resilience: “Can I do this for one day?”
When the running of a household, employment, volunteering, supporting a currently serving member of the Defence Force, and caring for our children was ‘less easy’, I would pull out this question which ultimately helped me make it successfully into bed and on to the next ‘one day’.
Hold Off the Rain, was written at just such a time. A wintry Canberra evening brought a Skype call from Afghanistan, beneath which rumbled the sounds of war. Before the fatal brush of finger over red icon brought our precious time together to its close, my husband insisted on seeing me safely into our bed. When awake in later hours Hold Off the Rain was half the sum of my feelings. The other half followed in the form of a second poem which completes it, Two Rules.
Recent posting dilemmas have found me 'counting boxes and bags, making sure it’s all great,' with some days calling for an answer to my resilience building question. Thankfully, I find I can do almost anything for just one day – oh, and sinking your toes into a tropical Top End beach might help a little.
To hear my short commentary of Hold Off the Rain, return to the homepage or download a recording free from the Poetry page.