I’ve decided I like being
someone who can’t be let down,
someone who’s always
able to offer
comfort to another

I prefer that to being
someone who has standards of behavior
with the duty to require them of others,
who needs to disapprove
when standards are not met,
who needs to coach when people get it wrong

That way, if you’re falling off the edge,
or if you think you’ve lost all your deserving,
I can let you feel
the comfort that’s unending,
you can know the depth
of that which treasures you

And that’s a comfort which,
when I can give it,
unfailingly will comfort me as well.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 14, 2019