Wish Words For you

Nature is not always kind, but never cruel,
can be unforgiving, but is always loving.
The rose, one day whipped by the wind,
burnt by the sun, still accepts the morning dew.

Who are we to reject Grace
pointing to our flaws,
to claim the scars on our soul
justify hardening the heart?

And what lessons do we have to learn
when the eighty year old grandmother of 17,
the oldest at the party, is the first to dance;
when a crippled old man in purple pajamas
shows us what we gain cataloguing our handicaps
can never steal our joy?

So, let us give our gifts freely
looking each other in the eye and asking,
“Is it given from the bottom of the heart?”
because only the heart can give without conditions,
only the heart can receive Grace,
only the heart can teach us how
to free ourselves from the love that holds us in chains
in order to find the love that gives us wings.