<div dir="auto">So happy to read this poem and have it in print to read again and again!!!</div><div dir="auto">Thank you for your gift of poetry, Toni!</div><div dir="auto">Your’s and the ones that ignite your heart and spring forth to be shared!</div><div dir="auto"><br><div class="gmail_quote" dir="auto"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Fri, Nov 3, 2023 at 8:07 PM Toni Bernbaum via Thespiritexpress <<a href="mailto:thespiritexpress@lists.mcn.org">thespiritexpress@lists.mcn.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div style="word-wrap:break-word;line-break:after-white-space">
<div style="margin:0.1pt 0in"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Times">Thank you Carlie for asking for this poem read last Tuesday and reminding me to send it out</span></div><div style="margin:0.1pt 0in"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Times">as I had promised. Its a beauty!</span></div><div style="margin:0.1pt 0in"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Times"><br></span></div><div style="margin:0.1pt 0in"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Times"><br></span></div><div style="margin:0.1pt 0in"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Times">AN OPEN POEM
TO A WORLD-WEARY EMPATH <i>~ john roedel</i><u></u><u></u></span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Times"> </span><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:14pt">you can’t
leave Earth yet</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:14pt">~ because I
just flipped ahead about a hundred pages in your story and I read that someday
you will be the reason someone else doesn’t give up on their life</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Times"> </span><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:14pt">I’m sorry to
spoil the end of your epic tale</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Times"> </span><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:14pt">~ but someday
you will be the one who ignites</span></p><div style="margin:0.1pt 0in"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Times">the blaze in
another person’s heart that <u></u><u></u></span></div><div style="margin:0.1pt 0in"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Times">won’t ever be
put out again <u></u><u></u></span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Times"> </span><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:14pt">don’t
complicate the plot of your story</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Times"> </span><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:14pt">~ you are here
to be a lamplighter that hands out</span></p><div style="margin:0.1pt 0in"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Times">little bits of
your flame to ensure the rest <u></u><u></u></span></div><div style="margin:0.1pt 0in"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Times">of the world
doesn’t exist in darkness <u></u><u></u></span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Times"> </span><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:14pt">I know you
have been scorched so many times</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Times"> </span><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:14pt">~ to love the
world is to sometimes be burned at the</span></p><div style="margin:0.1pt 0in"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Times">the stake by
others who mistake your gift<u></u><u></u></span></div><div style="margin:0.1pt 0in"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Times">of compassion
as a personal weakness <u></u><u></u></span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Times"> </span><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:14pt">I know it’s
not easy to be a bringer of light</span></p><div style="margin:0.1pt 0in"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Times">to those who
have become addicted to shadows <u></u><u></u></span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Times"> </span><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:14pt">~ but we need
you to be a gardener of effervescent seeds</span></p><div style="margin:0.1pt 0in"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Times">that you will
perhaps never see grow into burning rosebushes<u></u><u></u></span></div><div style="margin:0.1pt 0in"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Times">that can be
seen from space <u></u><u></u></span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Times"> </span><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:14pt">Oh, my love,
don’t give into the calling despair</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Times"> </span><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:14pt">~ set your
life on fire with kindness and watch how many</span></p><div style="margin:0.1pt 0in"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Times">other people
come out of their caves to sit by your <u></u><u></u></span></div><div style="margin:0.1pt 0in"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Times">campfire heart
to share their own stories of survival<u></u><u></u></span></div><div style="margin:0.1pt 0in"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Times">Oh my love,
you are my favorite element<u></u><u></u></span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Times"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Times"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"> </span></p>
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