[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
desperate
night.
She became
still and strong,
like an oak tree,
to give him
shelter,
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 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,
his and hers,
their journey
to make,
to make,
to walk
this portion
of the highway
together.
