wisdom | 365 And Counting

I’m taking a rest today. I like this better than anything I would have written. Came across it on Sunday in, you guessed it, Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper. I hope you get as much out of it as I have, we’ve all been there. Cleo Wade is a poet, artist and speaker, with a new book out, “Heart Talk: Poetic Wisdom For a Better Life.”

the way out and the way forward

***

I loved myself

through what I had

been through

this is how

I stayed afloat

even when

life’s waters

raised above my head

and when I needed

someone to trust

this is how I knew

which hands

were helping hands

and which

were hurting hands

***

Cleo Wade

I’m always providing links to blogs I’ve read and really enjoyed. Or where I’ve found the inspiration for a post of my own. But I’ve never actually written out the content of another blog.

So today is a first for me. I was so moved, so touched and so inspired by what I read the other day, I knew a link just wouldn’t do it justice. The words themselves, the spirit behind them and the lesson to be learned, is just too powerful.

Particularly when you consider the poem I’m going to share with you was written by a young girl. Only fourteen or fifteen years old, in fact. But first, some background.

Elizabeth Blue, who wrote the poem, passed away on September 23, 2012, from lymphoma. Wise and talented far beyond her years, she was a gifted and prolific writer. She and her mother started a blog, Luminous Blue, when she first became ill. It’s purpose — to tell she story of their journey “with transformation, cancer, death and LOVE”. I’ve been following it for about a year.

Even though Elizabeth is gone, the blog goes on. What you’re about to read is the poem Elizabeth wrote when she was in her freshman year of high school 2004 – 2005. Long before she got sick. Long before there was even a hint her life would be cut short. Long before she’d experienced enough of life to be this wise. This ‘connected’ to her soul. I read it

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