GREETING THE WORLD

Welcome Young traveler, fresh from deep sleep
Your eyes are wet with happiness,
Not with tears you have yet to weep.
Greet the world with a fresh and open heart
The sun and sky smile down upon you;
The grass, the trees, the earth of which you’re a part,
Greet you in return; for friends we are right from the start.
A child’s smiling face commands all the world
One surely gets the feel, that here there’s a God so real,
In the kingdom of the soul.
A child’s joy lifts the hearts of every family
And makes a girl of every woman,
And a man of every boy…
That’s the power of a child’s joy.

There you are sitting on the grass; you know nothing of time—future, present or past.
You know nothing of heartache, loneliness or pain
Even you tears are as refreshing as summer rain.

It comes from within you, a shining sunny soul,
A smile on your face: “Greeting the World”
A friendly, magical place
Every plant, every tree, every flower and every bee;
Every frog and every butterfly;
every new day and every blue sky
Every new person you very best friend,
“Childhood to childhood”
May your blessing never end.

[1988: for: Childhood to Childhood, c. 1988, Michael A. Guy]