The Recipe Has Always Included Sorrow

What I Know For Sure:

that even the worst times were necessary
to teach me the lessons 

my soul needed to learn

that it doesn't matter 

how much or little you gather,
in life, only what you give

that each cell, particle, tree, rock, 

each being, in the world
is connected to every other, and to me

that even in times 

when we feel most alone,
we are being guided and helped

that, in order to be truly  

happy and at peace,
we must follow our hearts, 

even when it scares us ~
especially if it scares us!

My Memory Bowl, this lifetime,
got filled to the brim
with laughter, with song,
with wonder, with broken hearts,
with lessons learned, and taught,
with miracles and serendipities,
with golden friends,
with broken trust which taught me
to trust myself,
with a dream in my heart
that forced me to take risks,
with a search for love
that taught me to love all people,
with a journey made
and the price I was glad to pay.

I sift through the bowl
like a goblet of grapes, plucking one
and then another:

those long-gone people,
from a gentler time, which was,
in fact, the harshest of times,

reviewing my heart’s perilous

yet joyous passage

from yesterday
into tomorrow.

The recipe, my friends,
has always included
Sorrow.

for Mish's prompt at dVerse: Life Lessons