love should guide our steps

a gift I take from Mother

with her life

my mother taught that love

should guide our steps in this world,

her creed also demanded judgment of others,

yet a judgment weighted toward acceptance,

toward appreciation of attitude and effort,

toward whether the other is open to an enlarging sense of self,

for her, mountains lifted the soul,

and our cabin should endure as gateway

for grounding into nature

and grounding into the best of one’s self,

what a gift I took from her

to support connection wherever I can.

by Henry H. Walker

April 16, ‘16