Letters and Diary Poetry posted August 11, 2023

Chapters:

...16 17 -18- 19...

Exceptional

Reflecting on time with the clinic.

A chapter in the book Songs of Recovery

A Labor of Love

by K. Olsen

I have found such extraordinary love in such ordinary places, as if sapphires scattered all across the sidewalk: in pealing giggles, laugh lines, aching tears, and the quiet balm for emptiness called, for lack of a greater word, companionship. It flourishes here without a how or why, except, perhaps, “You were you.”   We made together a haven for hurting hearts, a sanctuary in an office complex, with sunlit windows for the doctors, and gorgeous pictures for us— the greatest of them a simple yard sign held to the wall with stolen gorilla tape, which reads, “YOU ARE LOVED.” All this, a place where I healed as much as the patients who walked through our ever-creaking door into our home away from home.   I wonder if you know, o gemstones, the magnitude of light refracted by your facets, casting sunbeams into shadowed chasms where despair and desolation feed. So many times have I stumbled darkly, feeling with numb fingers for a lifeline while all the devils of my mind knocked below— only to have your gentle light illuminate the path back to the world above.   If we are reflections of divinity and grace, perfection and adoration in the flawless sense, imprinted finitely in the mold of something infinite, nowhere have I seen that glimmer brighter than when it shines in your everyday words of kindness, tumbling like afterthoughts, without want for anything in return— except, perhaps, for everyone to feel enough… or failing that, "a million dollars and margaritas".