Sometimes we take baby steps, uncertain and needing of help. Sometimes toddling steps—surer, yet still not confident. Sometimes we take a giant step—leaping, bounding forward. Sometimes we take a backward step, when we see we’ve taken a wrong path. Sometimes our steps are joyous, running steps, when we feel we are barely touching the ground. At times we drag our feet in sorrow, grief, loneliness, and uncertainty, when our feet feel leaden. Sometimes we walk alone, sometimes with friends, family, our mate. But all our life is filled with steps—forward, backward, or sideways, full of confidence or faltering. Life is full of steps.
— Nelani Nettrour

Heavy Steps

I am a flower
Trampled under the weight
Of heavy steps.
I was not meant to be stepped on
But to admire and enjoy.
I was to be protected,
Nurtured and allowed to grow
In beauty for all.
Careless and hurtful steps
Destroy my beauty.
The flower is still there.
Beaten and forlorn.
I am still here.
My beauty will never again
Bloom for anyone.
– Soaring Falcon
Liluye Elsu