Beyond Flowers and Chocolate



Anticipation grows stronger

as Valentine's Day looms over us

like a mysterious cloak of fog.

We dream of flowers,

but they are better off

growing in the ground.

We dream of chocolate,

but the ground

out of which the beans grow

has lost its nutrients

and the treat has lost its taste.

It is time to grow

beyond flowers and chocolate,

but our future appears

over a lost horizon

and we fear

the mock-tragic chords of

a not-so-finely-tuned violin

weeping for our errors,

accompanied by a rambunctious bell

which rings in

our own clumsy disasters

year after year.

Is love possible?

Yes! We cry in desperation,

but it seems to us

only to seep out

through the

awkward steps of a

missionary toddler.

Somehow,

we must find the faith

to believe

in the dream we cannot see,

the song we cannot hear,

and the love we cannot find;

for these things are discovered

not just upon the weary ground

of our human experience

but also within

the wise heart

of our newborn spirits.