Unconditional

 

Clear skies on a cold winter day

The tiny shoes on my baby’s feet

The love on my lover’s face

The pride on my parents’ faces

 

The baby corns on a stalk that know they will never become as big as the ones on the top

The water in an old well that refuses to dry off

The wrinkles on an old man’s face that disappear as he remembers the day I was born

The clink of steel glasses of lemon sherbet on a sweltering summer day

 

Pumpkins in autumn, fall leaves that never fall

Mistletoe under which to kiss every human

Love in a reindeer’s prance

Kindness in an old bearded man’s heart

 

A thousand lamps on Diwali’s nights

And one little lamp that shakes the darkness away

The colors of Holi

The vengeance of happiness as we celebrate every holiday

 

The smell of bhel-puri on the streets

Chestnuts toasted in a little cart that has more past and future than you or me

Girls with flowers in their hair who swing when the first Indian monsoon rains come

Peacocks that can’t stop dancing

 

And, then, there is you, me and us

Little things in a beautiful world

That isn’t large enough to hold our thoughts

But which can expand if we only ask it

 

We haven’t tried hard enough

Because we haven’t asked for love from everyone we meet

And we have not been given it

If only we remember to ask

 

And accept the love given to us in all our vulnerability.

If we can, there will be no wars, no clouds, no shrouds.

Finding strength in our vulnerability is our power

A power that nothing can destroy.

 

Because true love is unconditional.