I don’t actually do coffee, don’t need it,
but I’m glad to take a break, sit and chat a while.
[Gazes out the window.]
It’s hard work, you know. 24/7, of course.
In every ding dang place in the world.
Especially the awful ones. But, really,
I’m at home everywhere— palaces, dungeons,
I have no preference, saints and tyrants, I take them all.
Even though most folks aren’t at home with me. [Chuckles.]
Not at all. They shun me, try to pawn me off
on neighbors they don’t like. It gets lonely sometimes. [Deep sigh.]
I don’t question it, I just show up.
The hard thing is, people think I’m mean, I’m their enemy.
I wish they’d just let me be their friend and teacher.
‘Cause, listen: I love the people I work with. All of them.
Oh, they think I’m some grim reaper, some malignant spook.
They have no idea how tender I am with every one of them,
the delight I feel when I hold them in my arms,
I mean, their whole life flashes before my eyes,
and every one of them, there’s no one else like them.
It’s like, you know, they’re my children. They are. [Long pause.]
Some people fight me, some are OK.
Sometimes I let them take their time,
sometimes it’s not that way. Nature calls.
Sometimes they just get thrown in my arms, you know,
accidents, disease. [Even longer pause…] The hard ones
are when I get called in by cruelty. Those really tear me up.
Those and the ones who are too light… when there’s nothing there.
But every time, it’s like I’m lifting my child into the top bunk:
you know, you gotta be both strong and gentle at the same time.
[Pause] The weird thing about this job is that they never stay dead.
They get to be part of something bigger than me,
something beyond me. It’s a mystery, really.
People think I’m some kind of thief but really, every time,
I’m just saying, “Here, come with me. I want to show you something.”
Well, sooner or later, everybody comes.
[Takes a deep breath.] OK, Back to work. Thanks for listening.
See you later.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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