Be That One, On Fire

Oh beautiful child, what may I give you against the world?

What may I teach you? How may I dress you against the cold?

May you be stronger than stone, stronger than hard growing roots,

But soft, softer than new shoots, softer than the lightest kiss.

May you have a strength within you like the heartwood of the trees,

For the world may burn and cut you, but please never let this keep

The blossoms springing out from the tips of your highest branches.

You were born a new and lovely thing, one never to be made again

And I’ve put myself into you, but you are something more,

Something other and separate, something sacred and wonderful

And so much more than any two of us could make together or apart.

May you take courage into fear and never tremble along the way,

For you are made of the wind and rushing water, you are fashioned

Of the fabric of mountains and of trees, the tall grass and blooming flowers

And something more, something holy and right, something unnamable.

You have the stuff of life flowing through your veins, bright and bursting

And so I hope that you always race forward with fire in your eyes

And joy in your secret-most heart, a joy that leans always toward love

And a love that lends itself often and to many, returning deeper, richer, fuller.

May you be ashamed of nothing you’ve done in gladness and with love

In the palms of your hands and the soles of your feet, for these things,

These are the reasons for our being, these are the substance of goodness and of life.

Set peace upon your brow like a jewel on fire in the sunlight

And weave mercy and compassion into your hair like spring flowers.

Be never too callous or world-worn to love, but be patient and kind.

Be grateful and graceful in all your walks and ways over the earth

And seek for the good, seek for the passion and the longing in all your dealings,

In all your dreaming, in every course and companion you may meet.

Be that one, on fire, who will not stop burning; be that dream, forever being dreamed.

Eric M. Petit