(my sister’s words)

Who you are
is the same person
you’ve always been —
from birth, maybe before it

You’ve always been yourself —
you need not fear
that choice or circumstance
has made you less,
has trapped you into somewhere dull or damned,
or that by luck or narrow skill
you have avoided that so far
but that you might, at any moment, fall.

You are what you are,
and what you are is needed, blessed,
and is preserved, as pure as any element.
Nothing bad that’s come to you
has ever been deserved,
nor can it dampen you — your essence
is not suppressed

This is your life
and you know how to live it,
This is your gift,
and you know how to give it.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 16, 2014

vessel by Jennifer McCurdy; image by Julius Friedman