Love and longing

You open us up to such uncertainty

When all we have known in the past

Is how precarious life can be

And how absent love

Or quickly stolen

By neglect, betrayal or disaster

So now when our hearts open

To that precious person

Who returns our love

We quake in the empty spaces

Opened by delays or absences

That were before harbingers of doom

Let us remember that life is fragile

Just as our past is so often present

Hiding just underneath the layers of consciousness and wanting

Let us remember that caring and being vulnerable

Is the price of being awake and human

No longer numb to the awesome depths

Opened again

Through loss and loving

Hope and longing