A Gift From the Sun

[Day 24 of the Soul Card Journey
with Elizabeth Crawford of Soul's Music
Soul Cards by Deborah Koff-Chapin
at http://www.touchdrawing.com/]
for Jeff

He came to

Traveler,

like a gift

from the sun,

sunny laughing baby

with gentle heart

and innocent eyes.

Schizophrenia

struck him down

at seventeen,

and for two decades

his soul struggled to

survive, to adapt to

his altered and fractured 

reality.

Traveler

walked beside him

down

many midnight streets

streaked with raindrop tears,

the endless darkness ahead

unknowable and,

thankfully,

unseen.

She hung onto

the other end of the phone

during hundreds,

no thousands,

of conversations,

as he struggled

to decide

whether

he could make it

through one more

stormy, lonely,
desperate 

night.

She became

still and strong,

like an oak tree,
to give him
shelter,

like an anchor,

to tether him

to the earth

when he would

blow away

like a scudding cloud

across the

tortured universe

of his mind.

On the other side

of this battle,

he emerged,

deciding to stay,

and thanked her

for always

holding on

to that sunny child,

that gentle heart,

inside him,
for never
letting go,
for never
turning away,

for seeing him, still,

the boy that he was,

inside the large suffering body

of the man.

In the end,

they decided

the illness,

the suffering,

had brought

them gifts:

it taught them

unconditional love,

acceptance,

Being There,

speaking from

the heart,

Being Real.

It taught them

that What Is

is What Is,

and is okay.

It was their

souls' path,
his and hers,

their journey
to make,

to walk

this portion

of the highway

together.