The life you have lived
and embraced,
in the end holds you.
The years that have passed
do not dissolve,
but rise like sap inside.
The tree planted by the river
does not thirst
or suffer lack.
The life we live holds us.
What we’ve given
is given back.
The love we’ve expressed
becomes the love
in which we’re embraced.
The paths we walk
revisit again
to circle us.
The ways we have blessed
become the means
in which our blessings return.
The life we have lived
hasn’t holes in it,
but fills up and overflows.
Ana Lisa de Jong
January 2017
Living Tree Poetry 