In Honor of International Day of Peace, a poem by Ana Lisa De Jong —
We were meant to grow up
climbing rungs to heaven.
We were meant to grow out
expansive as yeast rising.
We were meant to grow inwards,
increasing in love and wisdom.
We were meant to grow out beyond
our old ways of living.
Shedding skins as
clothes grown long too tight.
We are meant to learn grace
as something not heavy,
for it always being a gift renewed
and re-given.
We are meant to stop
condemnation, judgement, anything small.
Cease from all that makes us smaller
than what we are now.
For we are growing up,
and giving up,
the old receding
like the sun behind the hills.
And the love in us expanding
out beyond ourselves,
so that we might not recognise
who once we were.
And so it should be,
love in us ever expanding
until all we see
is love in all.