by Pam Verner

A Conversation With My Eight-Year Old

Ok now, just so you know,
sixty years from now,
you will have experienced only a few of your worst fears coming true.
Yes. It is true. People do die.
You did experience your mother and father dying.
But you also experienced that the depth of who you are didn’t die,
doesn’t die,
and you know now it never will.
And so that was a false fear.
And remember that time on Mozart Street?
Where Eileen told you everyone goes to hell?
When a deep inner loving voice told you that wasn’t true?
That you had lived before and will again?
You held that truth close to your heart
and never let it go.
And that voice?
Remember that voice?
And remember the spirit, that tall Indian man,
that talked you out of suicide that day in the bathroom
when you were nine, holding that open bottle of ammonia to your lips?
Remember?
He told you you could find love elsewhere.
At some further time in your life. If you chose.
Well, Guess what?
You did.
You really did find love.
Several times.
And with that love, you built a family
And now have grandchildren older than you are now

And guess what?
You came to know that voice,
That tall Indian man as your guide.
Bringing you strength from deep within your heart.
A loving presence with you your entire life.