You must touch the center of your own sorrow
Or you’ll become shriveled and closed for fear of further pain tomorrow.

Can you let ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes,
Without cautioning to be careful, remembering the limitations everyone knows?

Can you risk looking like a fool for love
For your dream or for meeting your heart’s longing sent from above?

Can you disappoint another to be true to yourself
Or must you be two-faced to gain admiration and wealth?

What sustains you from the inside when all else falls away?
Will it be enough to keep you constant and give you endurance each day?

If you can stand to be alone with yourself and truly like the company you keep in those empty moments… that should be your goal,
For then, you can know true faithfulness and not betray your won eternity or soul.

By Ann Leyh