I see you, the real you. The one that you keep hidden from the world. I see your hopes and dreams, the joy that dances in your eyes. So also do I see the fears that keep you up at night, and the pain that sits waiting behind that joy. This is my service to you, to bare witness. To receive the best and the worst that you have to offer. To be a receptacle, a vessel, for the secrets that lie beneath your surface. Come to me in joy and I will embrace you. I will reflect your light, like the moon to the sun, and show you the brilliance of your glory. I will gladly burn on the pyre of your ecstasy, giving myself over to the flames, amplifying your beauty. Your joy is my guiding light, my northern star, my beacon in the dark. Your radiance floods me, blinding me, so all I know is your heat. You are so beautiful when you burn. Come to me in sorrow and I will embrace you. I will hold you so tight that you need not fear falling apart, for I will tend to your pieces. Though I am filled with darkness, I will be your light, keeping you safe from the demons that play at its edge. I will feed you from my own flame and shelter you from the wind. For I am stunned by your grace, even in your darkness. This is my gift to you. My greatest strength. I open myself and offer you my depths. Naked and exposed I receive you into the core of my being, that you may feel the echo of yourself, and know that you will never be alone. I will hold your secrets and be your safe harbor. I am dazzled by the light that fills my world, but I will take up the lamp for you, and guide you through the dark. ~DF “They say beauty comes from a spirit that has weathered many hardships in life and somehow continues with resilience. Grace can be found in a soul who ages softly, even amid the tempest. I think the loveliest by far is the one whose gentle heart bears a hundred scars from caring, yet still finds a way to pick up the lamp, one more time, to light the way for love.” ~Susan Frybort, Light the Way for Love