To an Infant

I marvel at you, and it is for nothing you have done.

You are the proof that love creates life. Try as we might all our lives to disprove it, we cannot. We can only unprove. Forgive us when we forget who you are.

I am happy you are being loved. I hope you will always be so loved. Forgive us when we don’t want you to be loved. That’s going to happen a lot.

I am sorry for the world of violence we are throwing you into unaware. I am sorry for all the ways we will teach you how to sin and to believe your sin is good.

You are a reality whose sanctity should never be trifled with, even when one day you yourself will act in a manner unworthy of the mystery of yourself.

You are awakening. May your awakening awaken the rest of us.

May it be a pleasure one day when you discover who you are, and our pleasure to observe your recognition of the fact.

I hope your life is challenging but not impossible. I hope your life is strenuous but not a strain. Let it have tension but not anxiety. Let it brim with vitality but not violence.

May you succeed at being a human being. May you be free to choose your own form of suffering.

Do not be dismayed if you and I fail to make a connection. Do not be discouraged if one day we can no longer speak to each other. You will have family beyond your blood. You will have brothers and sisters in the spirit. The household of God is great, and we do not have to live in the same room. What we cannot forgive of each other, what we are unable to unbind, God will release for us.

I just wrote the word “God.” You do not know who God is. That is all right, because neither do I. Go on dreaming anyhow, and I will go on praying anyhow.

Many things will go wrong, and you will know emptiness, failure, and pain. You will lose, and you may lose it all. For all that, there are things that remain. Every word that comes from the mouth of God remains. And though I do not understand how or why I say this, I believe that what has been spoken once cannot be unspoken. You are a word not spoken by human lips. You have been Spoken.

Someday, when you have grown in years and strength and wisdom, you will look upon an infant and remember things you do not know. When you do, be kind to others and to yourself.