Building Fences

Like many of us, I believed that a person who built boundaries around himself either emotionally or physically was simply being difficult or hostile. That is, until I experienced the need to forgive others. 

Building emotional or sometimes physical fences can be essential to the forgiveness process.  It protects oneself emotionally and even physically. It signals that, while one is maintaining self-worth while letting go of resentment. Boundaries also promote healthy relationships. By setting healthy ones (ones without negativity), one promotes healthy relationship dynamics. 

Profound? Enjoy this simple sonnet. 

Fences, built so solid, to protect

Guardians of the self and soul

High, solid and erect

Keeps away harm untold

Fences, built so solid, do cover

Allow the yard within to grow

A yard with roses and clover

So emptiness and dearth do not show

Fences, solid with space, allow

The growth of sturdy olive trees

Doves fly in, perch on their boughs,

In their beaks within, their leaves

Fences, built so solid, fortify

The soul and space, beautify.