We Say: Tree of Life

We have always called this thing you feel now, "Weltschmerz."
But the song says: "Ain't you got a right to the tree of life?"
Please don't hang your death upon it.
We will not lie: Life can be a very lonely thing.

That is why we say: be kind.
We say: love the ones who love you.
Accept the kindnesses
Offered by the imperfect.
They are offerings of devotion.
Struggle as you must to see their perfections.
We say, who feel your feeling might be like ours.

We say: "Enjoy what there is to enjoy."
We say: welcome good fortune in any form.
We say: count pleasures like pennies.
Add them up.
They will amount to something, given time.
We say: they will make you rich
With the kind of wealth others need,
The kind that multiplies when divided.

We say: "Let your light shine."
We say: look at your native gifts.
They are abundant,
Good fortune you were born with.
You cannot store them up.
Hiding them under a bushel
Will only extinguish them.

We say: "Suffer what there is to suffer."
We say: help others often
With no expectation of return.
Help those we do not yet love
For the sake of helping
Even just little bit,
For the sake of the ones we do love.

We say: do it until it becomes a habit.
Then, we say: do it until it becomes a reflex.
We say: do it until it gives us the strength to love unrequited,
Strength for the day ahead,
Bright, cold, insensible of our being,
Strength to look on our own misery gently,
Having looked on that of others,
Strength gathered grain by grain,
The way our feet gather sand walking on a beach,
Strength to endure joy when it comes at last,
Strength to endure anything,
Strength to merely endure.
All illogically, it makes us feel less lonely.

We say: you are brilliant.
We say: you have as much right
To the sun, the warmth, the air,
The cleansing rain, the nourishing soil,
As the tree of life.
We say: please do not wither.
Sink your roots deep.
We say: we all need you.
You are the tree of life.