Passage Twenty: All We Have To Lose
A young woman,
Whose name was Amie,
Was killed senselessly
In a sandwich-shop robbery.
Her killer was soon apprehended,
And in the midst of their grief,
Amie's parents reached out
To comfort this young man's family,
And spoke out publicly
For compassion, forgiveness,
And their hopes for his redemption.
Thousands were inspired and uplifted
By her parents' examples.
Their caring for all concerned
Helped hearts to heal,
Including their own.
The seeds they sowed
By these good works
Will bear fruit
For generations to come.
The generous of spirit
Are enlarged by their giving.
The miserly, diminished
By their clutching.
In the spirit,
What is kept is lost,
And what is given is a joy for all.
We give or we withhold
In every interaction.
All are made poorer
By what is withheld.
All are made richer
By what is given.
We deprive ourselves
And each other of
Light and warmth because
We think we do not deserve them.
The confusion that results
In this deprivation
Is a kind of false economy.
Granting only that which is deserved,
We grant less and less,
And less and less is rightly ours.
But there is something more than right,
More than just, more than is deserved.
It is not something we ask of others.
It is something we hope for them.
Bringing this forth
From ourselves for others,
We enjoy the light
And warmth of this ourselves,
And in no other way.
Amie Montgomery, 1978 - 1997
