I wish you could hear me say thank you.
I wish I could raise my shameful face
from the dirt that I think I see around me
and shout over the fence I have built
so that you could hear the genuine
thankfulness in my voice.

The power of your teaching leads me
away from the usual blame to a place
where I can curl up and rest from the
repeated wounds that life has left me,
and look at them and say,
yes, that is part of me as I am part of it.

Showing the light as you do,
shining it, not brightly but gently,
I can begin to see what is so hard to see
and stop my shrugging shoulders,
which have bourn so much weight,
from denying the knowledge that I so need.

To know myself, plainly and clearly
but without shame or regret
is a path to true growth towards
a happiness that no longer relies
on another’s choices but is there,
inbuilt in the very nature of my humanity.