Yours is the body that bears the burden,
the heart that carries the disappointment
when operations are unsuccessful
when medications cause side effects,
—or don’t work at all.
Yours is the life being dominated by an illness
that shouts so loudly, but in a language no one seems to understand.
Yours is the arrival that causes the consternation of experts,
the discomfort of friends, and the heartache of family.
Blessed are you, dear one,
for you are not the problem nor the cause.
You are everyone’s reminder that terrible things do happen,
and can keep on happening, with no end in sight.
You who are trying to hold it all—
the pain and grief and disappointments that keep coming—
when you try to protect others from their own worst fears,
to spare them the hard truths.
Blessed are you, dear heart, for you can set that burden down.
For it is ours too and we embrace it.
For we are the ones who are blessed
to receive the privilege of being with you in it,
of knowing you, seeing you, loving you, and saying with you,
Yes, life is exactly this hard,
exactly this uncertain, this fragile, this precious.
This is real.
Adapted for a communal setting from THE LIVES WE ACTUALLY HAVE
