Birthday Wishes - Grace Garvey

I was tongue tied

When you asked me

What I want from

The universe

Because I don’t know

What else I could possibly want

What else I could possibly wish for

When I have been gifted so much.

I spent years

Wanting my life to be different

Wanting to be born

Into a different body on a different day

Unaware of all the love

I have had the privilege to receive.

All the moments of beauty

That have been waiting for me.

All the time the sun

Kissed my face and I didn’t even

Notice her lips.

All the times the birds

Sung for me

And the miracle of another day

But I was too busy listening

To all the reasons this life wasn’t enough.

All the reasons I didn’t belong.

All the reasons we were unworthy

Of belonging –

To each other.

To these moments.

To these trees and this sky.

Perhaps what it is

That I want from the universe

Is countless moments of remembering.

I want the opportunity to love

And be loved

Just as we are

Imperfections

Tattered hearts and all.

I want moments of connection

With myself, the forest, fellow humans

That teach me

That love and compassion

Are infinite resources.

I want the world

To touch me so deeply

That I fall to my knees in awe

As the sunlight streams

Through our hair.

Strangers walking down the street

Unaware that we have been

The same life all along.

I want to live.

I want to find adventures and joy

In the smallest things.

And I want us –

The universe

To remind each other

When we get lost

Of all the beauty

We have yet to become.