keep your friends close and your enemies closer

The enemy attacks, a silent beginning

It hides for awhile until it is sure it is winning

Unseen and unheard, staying out of the light

Slowly and silently, like a thief in the night

Insidious and clever is it’s nature and style

Invading our body it tricks us for awhile

Pretending to be a friend, it soon betrays

Slowly revealing, its devious ways

A little twitch, a tremble, a little dart of pain

Is this really happening or am I going insane

Somethings not quite right but we dismiss from the mind

It’s just our imagination, an illusion of some kind

But our defences have woken and are on the lookout

In the back of the mind there is a gnawing doubt

So we visit  the doctor, we no longer can hide

And to our horror we discover the enemy inside

So it begins a war between illness and body

While you fret and you stress with growing anxiety

The civil war within exhausts our bodies and minds

Our spirits, our strength and energy it undermines

So how do we cope, what plan, what strategy ?

Do we waste all our time caught up in the tragedy

Do we fight it full on and deplete all our energy

Or accept it as a “friend”  but who is also our enemy?

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer

Though the gathering storm grows ever stronger

We may bend, we may bow but we do not break

Like a leaf on the breeze our courage we take

Be as gentle and as powerful as water and tide

As we call on the fire from deep inside

With conviction as firm as the earth beneath our feet

We do not bow down, we will not know defeat

Even on days when life seem so dire

Because deep within, there still burns the fire

A glowing ember of hope and your power

Nourish and encourage it like a precious flower

Fix the anchor to that strength within

And let the dance with chaos begin