Real Value and The
Living Book
If size doesn’t matter
then why do so many men
leave locker rooms,
disappointed, in wonderment
as to why they weren’t more
properly endowed?
If a man is happy and content
with exactly where he is,
then why does he still envy
and judge himself a failure against
all who are where he thinks
he might have been?
A thousand means for measure
existing in this world,
nothing misses the effort to sort,
define and be put into its place.
For sure, it works to discern
a thousand shades of color.
We know for sure the number
for any purple, red, or gray.
But haven’t we taken measurement
too far, when we class a man
a failure for never going far
in the club of the corporate few,
or simply not achieving all
from his father’s antiquated
world point of view?.
Is not society, how ever elaborate,
still an artificial state structured
from someone else’s dreams?
Alas, so much judgement on basis
of rank, IQ, sex, or color of the skin
rather then the sum or quality
of what’s been done.
How can anyone ever judge
the scheme of another’s life
from amidst all of this illusion?
I say it be impossible to measure
the value of a life from illusion.
It was God who set upon a life
its path, so it be only God
who can rightly judge
the completing of the task.
Every life has great value
even those who seem lost.
We do not know
how many times a simply act
not remembered changed the world.
A smile of a little girl might easily
have healed the pain and turned a heart
away from the bitterness
which was about to make it kill.
That same child might grow up
and do nothing else
that society would feel merits value.
Yet, that child gave the greatest gift
of all to another, the gift of life,
Her life had purpose
yet she . . .the world never knew.
In self appraisal, one must discount
all that the world would say.
We must look within the heart
of what we are and ask,
‘What did I do in years
gone by to influence,
change or touch another’s heart?”
Think back to all the special moments
you thought you’d never forget.
Moments likes these . . .
when a few words of caring
brought a smile to a lonely child
or to one about to give up hope.
It may have been the time
you saved a life
and didn’t even know.
Our ideas of failure and success
are molded not just by us.
It is society, it’s norms and value
systems which play as much
against our sense of worthiness
and value or in its lack thereof.
I say to you, you’ve saved my life
so many times, it defies a count.
So, dear friend, why is this
not viewed or counted for success?
The most cherished of all books
ever known to man is nothing
without the reader
who sees within the text
a greater truth of self
that transforms and enlightens.
Only then does such a miraculous truth
becomes that person’s own.
The greatest book, however,
is not born with pen in hand.
Without pen or paper,
each day we write a chapter
in that book which is our life
We ARE the sum of all
that’s written there.
Each time we meet another soul,
that soul can view the essence
of all written in the book.
Written and achieved
usually without fame,
the living book,
if viewed with open heart
is the greatest of all powers
to transform and heal
that reside upon the earth.
Write your book well . . .
and all who walk upon this earth
will change and be better
for the fact that you’ve been here.
By Shirl A. Steward
Dedicated to the most beautiful of all living
books
I have been gifted the pleasure of reading. April 29, 2002
Return to www.healingwaterspress.com Index
