Exuberance

There comes a time when you learn again to allow
   The Future to stir you in the middle of the night
   And whisper to you its promises.
And you begin to see that the light
   That once burned you now shines
   Like a far-off jewel in the desert.
And you begin again to crave again that small taste of kindness
   That melts away bitterness
   As warmth opens thin cracks in the ice
   To the wide sweep of a river.
You learn to savor the meaning that every deed carries
   As flowers exude scent
   Even as they are crushed -
To begin again to trust the gentleness of others
   As you steady yourself upon the quietness
   That flows up from the still earth -
To listen for the tones of affection
   In their voices that form a song
   As you hear sighs in the breezes
   That rush to braid themselves around you.
And you begin to believe that all past fears
   Rise into a high and living purose
   As you look up and see
   That branches reach to brush the moon.
And you see that all small, forgotten gestures
   Of kindness form a pattern
   As the far-scattered stars link together to vault over you.
And you learn to love Forgiveness
   As a being that lives and grows
   As thin, early-dawnthreads of sun
   Swell Into a blaze of warmth.
   -- Listen to My promise:
   Do you not know that My goodness will
   Wrap itself around and around your life?
   -- Listen to My whisper:
   Do you not know that every lowly moment or your life
   Lies within My golden eye?

- by Jana Van Gorp