One hundred and fifteen days ago, I began a journey to find my way back to centre. My husband’s health was deteriorating and I was fighting embracing becoming a full-time caregiver. Everyday I struggled to navigate the jagged edges of a life I chose which now also contained so many unexpected notes of becoming something I never imagined being to the man I love. To avoid playing a discordant rhythm, I had to learn the keys of tenderness, compassion, and love, by rote, so that whatever each day may bring, I sing a song of joy. Which is why I chose to write a love poem a day for a year -to create a new song of love and joy that encompassed it all.

In my struggle to learn this new melody, the ‘critter’ and I have fought over sharps and flats. We’ve wrestled with who controls the beat and what tempo to play every day. With grace and patience, the sage within has held her silence, knowing that until I released my need for control, I would never hear her urgings to accet the peace of surrender. She is wise this sage woman within. She knows that until I embrace what each moment brings, I’ll never experience the joy of Being. Here. Now.

Slowly, with practice, I am finding the quiet between each note and discovering that the “constant din” softens when I listen into the hum of presence that is constantly playing bass to the refrain of Love I seek. I am learning to let the “bones” of this song of joy we sing, together, to be the ancient melody I play – and in its presence, I am free to stop trying to write music that no one can hear above the cacophony of the noise of my heart trying to find its beat drowns out its harmony.

To my sage within, who I have often ignored, thank you for guiding me back to the truth. To the sea that caresses the shores of hope and opens my mind to possibilities, thank you for sharing your ebb and flow. And to you, who have walked these many days with me:

May you find your own hearth. May you hear the voice of your own Sage. And may you too embrace the inexplicable joy of discovering, the song in your heart is the home of your dreams.

The ink is dry, the bones have appeared, and the circle is unbroken. Through writing a love poem a day for the past 115 days, I have moved from fighting the wind to dancing with it. I have shifted from silencing the music of the wind to setting myself free to live each day singing a song of joy, no matter what blows in through the windows opened wine. What a miracle! All of it!

May this season of love, light and joy bring you great tidings of comfort and joy and miracles for all!

A Song for Every Child
by Louise Gallagher

Look up!
A star shines bright
this winter’s night
and angels sing
of every child’s birthright

Peace. Hope. Love and Joy.
Peace. Hope. Love and Joy.

Sing Loud!
Let our voices be strong
Let our hands correct the world’s many wrongs
So that every child may one day hear
No guns, no hatred, and have nothing to fear.

Peace. Hope. Love and Joy.
Peace. Hope. Love and Joy.
Rejoice!
put down your arms of destruction
and take up the tools of construction
let’s build a world where all can be
kind, caring, loving and free.

Peace. Hope. Love and Joy.
Peace. Hope. Love and Joy.

____________________________________

To listen to the poem as a Christmas song, I asked an AI assistant to provide a musical score and voice. Listen to it HERE.