is there someone
who grounds you
and guards your secrets
like the royal treasure
and makes you laugh
and talks you off the ledge
when you want to quit
and reminds you
when everything looks black
that you saw sprouts of hope
just a few weeks ago
and makes you want to
run your best time today
no matter how badly
you messed things up yesterday
and keeps calling
even when you don’t call back
and never keeps score
and feels so much like home
that sometimes you forget
to say thank-You?
“Father, thank you. . . .” John 11:41
“[P]rize above all else in the world those who love you and who wish you well. Do not hurt them or scold them, and never part from any of them in anger; after all, you simply do not know: it may be your last act before your arrest, and that will be how you are imprinted on their memory.” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelag