What if every person knew
with total certainty that they
are loved and loveable?
Of course, there would still
be traffic jams, avalanches,
stubbed toes, flash floods, dust
on our wonder, ticks. Of course,
we still would die, still would grieve
the dead. But listen, what if
all who live could feel inside
us the greening, fruiting
re-seeding infinity of love?
Are you imagining it, too?
What if we all could close our eyes
and imagine the sound of our name
whispered like a prayer on someone
else’s lips? The world will always
fall apart, but trusting we are loved
is what holds back the emptiness
when the bullets, when sirens,
when silence, when wounds.
We cannot love the whole world,
but we can each love someone,
nourish the wonder of their being
until they see themselves as wondrous,
too. What if with touch or not touch,
words or not words, gift or not
gift we show them the truth—
that there is nothing they need
to be or not be to be worthy of love.
Imagine it. How might such love
change the world? How might
such love change you?