From whom do we steal if not from ourselves
If we consider others importance such that our interests fail.
And in that allow our own inner souls death
To come from self-starvation in this tragic neglect,

But not that another should be desolate or in plight,
Or in need of support whether aid or delight.
For if peace is the root of this temporal stay,
Then this is the peace that will feed us each day.

Between these is seen such great discord today.
But seeing it as such is such a mistake.
The privation of self cannot be the loss
Of serving as He, He would not ask such a cost.

For is not your own being the gift He first gave?
And He followed that then with all you became.
In this, if you choose to become all you might,
Would it not follow, then, you reflected His light?

If, in this, you generously and humbly concede
That what you've become is all due to He,
You've taken the bequest of this life, not contrived
And given its light back to Him, reflecting His light.

Gifts, everyone has, and all have been given.
It is these gifts He provides to us with our living,
And none that we have, could ever then cost
The self for another, for both are then lost.

This means not then that one would fail and be lost
For a ministration in love never carries too great a cost
Yet it is not that one might give even your life
But that it not be at the loss of your self and your light.

Reflecting His light in what we become
Is making fair use of what he had done.
It is, I suppose then, the very best use
Of this time on Earth, that one's self doesn't loose.

It seems so abstract, this balance, this play
Amid self-fulfillment that unselfishness doesn't pay.
But when you understand His complete self intent
You realize this giving without being spent.

For you are no better, yet, no less deserving
The fulfillment of yourself than someone who's hurting.
Do not let their plight be lost while you swoon.
Don't just deaden their pain, help them heal their wounds.

The self you've become, becomes even more
And it isn't then lost, parched, or unborn.
It first had to be, before it could be fully found,
And could not then begin, without you, first being found.