Greatest Gift

Hello Beautiful,

You are a caregiver, in this time of great need.

Care: (Noun) the provision of what is necessary for the health, welfare, maintenance, and protection of someone or something.

Giver: (Noun) a person who gives.

You are light in the darkness. You are two hands held together. You are the link in a chain - from what is unattainable, to what is instantly given without reservation, without judgement - for those in need.

You are the doctor.

You are the mother.

You are the nurse.

You are the counselor.

You are the best friend.

You are a father, you are the protector.

You are the bringer of water, and groceries, and medicine, and flowers.

You are the man in the stopped car, calling out to the lost dog - reading the collar’s instruction, dialing the numbers - returning him to his worried owner.

You are the little girl who shares her lunch with the birds.

You are the world leader - who looks first not to defend one’s own ideas, but to safeguard the voices of all speakers and to help all voices effectively merge; to guide the masses through role-modeling of strength, rather than finger-pointing of wrongdoing.

You are the teacher who delivers to hungry students the meals they depend on - no matter the world circumstance, no matter the cost; in every sense of that word.

You are the little boy who screams stop when someone hits, even when that someone is an adult four times as big.

You are the so-called lost cause, who turns - to face that mirror; and through sheer will of determined love - thinks “today I will keep trying,” thinks “it’s not over yet,” decides “I’ll take one more step.”

You are the opener of a purse, of a wallet - pulling out green slips of rectangle paper and placing them in the hand of another without any transaction having happened, without any exchange having occurred; simply because it is a thing you can do - and so you do it.

You are the old man, the old woman - sitting somewhere, on some chair, looking out some window, perhaps looking into a cereal bowl, or at flashing television screen, or into the folds or your own cupped palms - and thinking, silently, “it will be alright,” trusting without reason but with belief in the human condition, with belief in the human heart that “someone will come” - that you will not be forgotten.

You are the ill, the seriously sick - hooked up to machines and tubes, to intravenous fluids, to pain medications and whatever else is needed - who refuses, to stop smiling.

You are the homeless who share a blanket - your only possession - with the newly evicted.

You are the center of all things.

You are a human.

And you know who you are. You know - when you are a caregiver, when you are a Giver of Care - because sometimes it stings more than it feels nice, more than it feels fair. You know you are a caregiver because you show up when there is a need, not because it seems fun. And you do it, because you are a caregiver. You do it because that’s who you are.

And so I say to you - Great Giver of Care - I say thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you…….. on into a sunset. A sunset of gratitude, a sunset from the bottom of my heart. That’s how you make me feel. That’s how I feel, inside - when you show up for me. I feel alive and I feel like glowing. I feel like I could do anything.

And I want you to know, that for me - you are a gift from God, from the Universe, a gift from Goodness, from whatever you wanna call it - I really don’t care.

I’m just glad you’re here.

Photo by Yulia Gadalina