Exhortation Station

Maybe it’s the lesson
More than the thing
The thing is shiny
The lesson stings
Maybe what I learn
Matters more than what I gain
Though for cloudless days I wish
Vegetation springs from rain

Oh, help me find the hidden lesson
Buried under layers of surface-level considerations
Competing for my attention
Meaning little in the end
The lesson, though
The lesson stays, transforms
Replenishing from inside out

The thing changes my surroundings
The lesson changes me
And when I’m changed, paradoxically
So are my surroundings
For the world is conveyed differently
To an eye that is healed
Thus it is that kind rebuke
Is better than love concealed

Someone, assist me
You have some of what I need
I’ll give you a lift
Your insights I’ll heed
Share a lesson
Trade a few
Nutrients we long for
Descending as dew

A million little lessons
Hidden prisms
Scattered in unlikely places
Once unearthed, held in the light
An array of colors, they cast
Onto the jagged facets of life
A burst of novel flavors
Bringing altogether new appeal

Excellent paths come into focus
When the mind is freshly healed