You Better Be Lightning (Button Poetry)

by Andrea Gibson

Friend, you are who taught me that a difficult life is not less worth living than a gentle one. Joy is just easier to carry than sorrow, and you could lift a city from how long you’ve spent holding what’s been nearly impossible to hold. This world needs those who know how to do that. Those who can find a tunnel with no light at the end of it and hold it up like a telescope to show that the darkness contains many truths that can bring the light to its knees. Grief astronomer, adjust the lens, look close. Tell us what you see.

Do you know monarch butterflies migrate three thousand miles using only the fuel they stored as caterpillars in the cocoon? We need so much less than we take. We owe so much more than we give.

The thing about loving a stranger is you can guess, but can never be sure, what they are privately surviving on their journey to help others survive.

In any moment, on any given day, I can measure my wellness by this question: Is my attention on loving, or is my attention on who isn’t loving me?

When you are trapped in a nightmare, your motivation to awaken will be so much greater than that of someone caught up in a relatively pleasant dream. –Eckhart Tolle