If what they say is true
and you can really be anything
I hope you’ll be your own stars and lavender skies
and every phase of every moon

Be your sun that meets the day
Be your air, breath, and fire
Be your lungs that haven’t quit

Be the postcard in the mail
on the way to greet old friends
Be your neighbor bringing laughter
and togetherness in cups of tea
Be paintings, puzzles and dreams still left to finish
Be the ladybugs gathered in three

Be every ocean too big to photograph
Be the snapshot from outer space
Be the embers in the backyard woodpile burning
and your midweek coffee date

Be the fireworks and the celebration
Be the rain jumping off concrete
Be the flowers you plant, and more importantly,
Be the roots that no one else sees

Be the first time listening to the song you’ve been needing
Be the dance class you’re scared to take
Be your stumbling and uncertainty
Be every season in its wake

Be the time capsule revisiting every hometown place
you thought surely you outgrew
Be elbows deep in a sink full of dishes
Be the vinyl crackling from the next room

Be open windows and fresh clean sheets
Be the moment to gather your thoughts
Be your voice of grace that says
You are more than “what you ought”

Be summer heat’s rest stop for gasoline
Be afternoon’s happily snoring dogs
Be the birdhouse in the yard
and the flock of magpies in their waltz

Because if what they say is true
and our lives are up to us
I’d like to think we can be brave enough
to be everything that’s been given to us