More important than feeling better
would be the gift of knowing
you are fundamentally sound,
incapable of having something wrong with you,
approved of to your deepest core,
delighted in, to each extremity,
illumined such that no dark shadow  –
disappointment, or even disenchantment  –
could ever fall across you.
That, certainly, would be a reason
to rise, take up your bed, and walk.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 2, 2023