Life is not a race, it is a divine unfolding

Now is the first day of forever Trying with everything in me To throw my head back and laugh In a world that has no you in it.

At first, after you went away, I couldn’t bear them. It seemed to me all they would explain Is how everything ends. My dear friends, oldest comforts, Couldn’t save me then. Maybe they were as paint flakes Touched by a blind man, When all I could see was survival I daren’t dream of savoring. When all I had in me was running, I couldn’t speak of slowness. All I could say to myself was Live! Keep on living! Find fields in purple-spring-richness, Find myself day after day, laughing. So today it was Mary told me: Be good-natured and untidy in your exuberance. Which I’ll take to heart, Which I can spin quickly into practice. Grief is not the last thing to hold me, I believe joy, too, can hold my hand. That these voices will always whisper to me That this life is bitter and gracious and heavensent, Now, I’ll take these fragments, bow my head, And listen to them.

This year, fresh, unmade, Sparkles with newness under the sun. One resolve there is in my mind— Make this life a happy one.

With chaos, and uproar, I walked through the door. Ten people in the kitchen, Outside, twenty more. The baby is crying aloud, The dogs are all underfoot. We are sick, and forgotten, But here, here we are loved, And known, and warmed. You’ll not go hungry, You’ll never go cold, Someone wants to hug you, Or take your picture, or Needs your opinion. Who knows now, how Many of us will still be here Next year. Who can tell you what time We are afforded, in life’s little wars. All we have is today, and the gifts it affords. I carried these little pieces of me Home for you, just for you, Over sea and sand and shore. So don’t be lonely, nor disheartened, If it’s the last Christmas, or just another, I’ll love you here and now, All the more, all the more, all the more.

It wasn’t a mistake Just because they lost you, It wasn’t all wasted Because it didn’t end how you wanted it to. Things will start to make sense When it’s not what you’re living through. You’ll find purpose again In regaining the person that is still you. Trust in the hours faithfully barrelling through, Even this parting will find its place within you.

Your strength returns in bounds, But it’s no failing to rest, just for now. On the drive home, you’ll sing out loud. Learn to trust in the gravity of all things, You will make sense of this somehow.

Wherever it is I shall go, You bring me out of the night. I will sing, I will rejoice forevermore, And bask in the warmth of Your light.

Into night, and into darkness, We scatter, one of many waves. On we’ll go, still ever knowing, There is light that shall never break.

I walk after you, It’s never too far. My heart will recover, It won’t even scar. I will sing in the morning With every new lark; You saved me from all I was With all that you are.

If you do take the time to read any, thank you very much! And if you'd take pity on me and let me know if any are particular favorites of yours, I would appreciate it very much.

So no small bit of my faith could give More comfort than your care for me did. I’ll tell you my stories, I’ll grin And bear more than I ever thought I’d live. You stay with me, I know. Your hand’s on my shoulder, even now. And even when I forget this again, You’ll find me in the voice of a friend. So bolster up, girl, and be gone, Your calling is to live and live on.

Learn to believe in time, in the season's Old, returning gold. Learn to hold onto more Than any emotion clutching your soul. Learn There is such a thing as blind, faltering trust. Let it into your life, don't let your bravery rust. Look for your hope, become well acquainted With what you don't know. Let lightness Become your home and hollow. Leave Behind frailty, abandon any disbelief. Find your hope in turning over a new leaf. Believe there can be good in any new week. When time keeps turning the cogs, then Find salvation in its ceaseless pitter- Pattering beat. Find you've still got some Dancing left in your feet. And when you Come to edge of all you've believed, Start over. Carry some new dreams. There are still graces left to you and me.

How shall you survive? No— How will you delight? What Will be your salvation, what Will bring you light? Where Will you wander, where shall You go? Who will call your Name for helping, who will You know? When will you Give up the ghosts, when will You fly? If your dancing leads You to the cliffs, will you know Why? When life is through, Will you look back and sigh? Or will you count these days You’ve loved, and grant them Your fondest goodbye? Live, Then, live! And don’t shut your Eyes. Go on, be part of all of it— You have nothing else but time.

I loved, I loved, with all of me. A fool I was not, it was the sun in me. I’ll live on, with more than memory, To love was enough for me.

In the end, there’ll be more love, There’ll be more of me. I hope I can love them well, But to live— is all they ask of me.

So by any name, or calling, By any path, the world ever-sprawling, By any flicker, silent as snow falling, Don’t let me lose you.

Dear thing, your heart is still here. You were not bowled over, you were Never permanently lost. Your being Was not buried in frost. Your winsome Laughter bubbles up, after all. The love Was never gone, neither was the warmth. The shock of being known comes Unprompted, from all directions, Someday, you’ll consider this a blessing. I thought wonder too large for me, a thing Too precious to stay within my grasp. But morning comes to everyone, and I Am no different from every being past. I’ll wake up soon, I’ll find a way to laugh, My merriment kept me alive through the bad. What I feared is here, but I’ll survive that. If nothing else remains within me, then Rest assured of one burning fact— There’s more to do, and more to save you, What I thought forever lost, comes back.