Home :: Trapped outside the world :: I'd hoped I'd be spared this

Human Nature

December 31, 1993 | Nora K. Loyd

Another year come and gone:
I bemoan my weakness.
Each year I slip a little more,
Slowly lose control:
First I feel,
Then feel more—
Finally succumbing
To showing my weakness.
Thus gradually,
My life falls apart.
Since I cannot hold myself,
My thoughts,
My feelings in check,
I lose my grip
On all the rest of my life, as well.


Oh, mystery of the Incarnation,
That truly God should become truly human!
I cannot comprehend this,
Since all my life
I have struggled to be
Un-human—
Anything but human:
Alien, feline,
Superhuman genius,
Or subhuman
And unfeeling—
Especially unfeeling!
But I confess I am human,
Confess as though a sin,
Although I know
To be human is good,
Ordained of God.


I find it painful to be so weak,
For I know weakness begets weakness.
Most of all I fear:
After years of denial,
I fear it may no longer be possible
For me to claim this human nature;
I fear that the attempt shall cost me
That which I do not wish to lose—
My friends,
And myself.