Poetry for a Happy Heart

I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
~Walt Whitman

Progress. Improvement. Good atoms. They belong to my beloveds as much as they belong to me, are products of myself. I celebrate my parents; for all their faults, their self-sacrificing love gave my hopes wings. I sing my friends: new, old, and in between. They, you, are myself. As much a part of my now soaring spirit as my earliest memories, my deepest secrets, my darkest fears, my lightest wish. Love-atoms we assume together, and though I may regret this come self-consciousness, for now a happy heart beats life to the far corners of the world. In our world, storms pass. Nature is mostly kind most of the time. Let us celebrate the greater kindness and sing the warmth of a companionship of lifetimes. I celebrate you. You sing me. And we belong to the good.