Thank You

Thank you for teaching me how
important it is to play,
even when I don’t feel like it.

Thank you for teaching me to be
excited about the world;
to view every walk as an adventure,
every stroll as a journey.

Thank you for showing me
who I was
in your eyes,
at those times when I couldn’t see myself.

Thank you for teaching me to
take in every part of the world
with my God-given senses,
to taste the winter ice,
to smell the autumn breeze.

Thank you for showing me the value
of an enthusiastic greeting.

Thank you for teaching me patience
and for teaching me to look at myself
when I blamed you or made you wrong for anything.

Thank you for teaching me
that personhood need not be defined
by the shape of one’s bodily frame.

Thank you for letting me know
what it might have been like
to have a little brother.

Thank you for teaching me
that we can create family
and that committed love can bind us together.

Thank you for teaching me
to laugh at myself.

Thank you for showing me
what it means to be loving
in the face of difficult circumstances.

You showed me what it means for me
to care about someone else before myself,
to put someone else’s well-being before my own,
to take responsibility when I wanted to run
and the value in being there for someone
when I wanted to be selfish.

You showed me how we all grow old
and how we don’t ever need to suffer in the process.
You showed me how to walk
despite being weak,
how to keep moving despite stumbling—
you taught me how to face life in the face of death.

Thank you for teaching me how to grieve,
how to bear pain with dignity,
and how to choose to be grateful
when the allure of self-pity is strong.

Thank you for teaching me
that sometimes doing what’s right
is the hardest thing to do in the moment,
that loving unconditionally
means accepting the unacceptable;
that sometimes to love completely
means to shoulder a terrible burden
so that the person one loves
can be free.