tough love

The God who made a world designed like this

is not so tame that I always feel good;

and as a dad & mum would be remiss

if they thought that a child could not (or should

not) ever cry: to open up their lungs

or learn to make the noises that they need

as precursors to speech, the sound that comes

to help us learn to grow & also feed

the kind of sounds that help us learn to talk,

and tune our ears to listen before that.

A bit of love and thick-skinned trust will cork

that panic when it knocks at our door-mat.

So here I'm learning like that one you chose,

to learn important things through sufferings

(whenever I have stubbed or kicked my toes,

I'm learning to look and remember things).

And I recall that "processes through time",

are often helped by "point of time events",

that crystallize them and bring them in line

with life, and save them sitting on the fence.

And I remember “life takes time to live”,

& ain’t just an event that happens to

someone, it takes a growth process to give

maturity a chance to come on through.

So I will learn to trust you in the both

(the process across time, but events too),

and learn to look for your bright presence so

that I enjoy (and mirror) what you do!