The Task

For purposes of classification,
we are known to ask
what makes a dog a dog or cat a cat?

 It's a different kind of question
—the search for something different from knowing—
when we pause to ask: What is it
that makes a man a man?

 It's as if in going from child to become adult
we lose our way,
perhaps delayed, 
or sent off in opposite directions
and cannot get back.

 Therein lies the task of becoming.

 Or we forget,
from the start, what we set as our goals,
what it was we were,
or perhaps didn't even know,
since that is the goal of our journey.

 It's an endless task, but the goal is near, 
and always available to touch:
first of all to accept who we are,
then join the quest
to find in the search for self
a place of rest.
that is simply to seek after peace.