[Thespiritexpress] Poem by John Roedel

[Tracey Coddington]

🙏♥️🌟

Sent from my iPhone

> On Nov 3, 2023, at 8:07 PM, Toni Bernbaum via Thespiritexpress <thespiritexpress at lists.mcn.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> Thank you Carlie for asking for this poem read last Tuesday and reminding me to send it out
> as I had promised.  Its a beauty!
> 
> 
> AN OPEN POEM TO A WORLD-WEARY EMPATH ~ john roedel
>  you can’t leave Earth yet
> 
> ~ 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
> 
>  I’m sorry to spoil the end of your epic tale
> 
>  ~ but someday you will be the one who ignites
> 
> the blaze in another person’s heart that
> won’t ever be put out again
>  don’t complicate the plot of your story
> 
>  ~ you are here to be a lamplighter that hands out
> 
> little bits of your flame to ensure the rest
> of the world doesn’t exist in darkness
>  I know you have been scorched so many times
> 
>  ~ to love the world is to sometimes be burned at the
> 
> the stake by others who mistake your gift
> of compassion as a personal weakness
>  I know it’s not easy to be a bringer of light
> 
> to those who have become addicted to shadows
>  ~ but we need you to be a gardener of effervescent seeds
> 
> that you will perhaps never see grow into burning rosebushes
> that can be seen from space
>  Oh, my love, don’t give into the calling despair
> 
>  ~ set your life on fire with kindness and watch how many
> 
> other people come out of their caves to sit by your
> campfire heart to share their own stories of survival
> Oh my love, you are my favorite element
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
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