There is a sentiment that has been misused

And overused 

And people have been abused with it,

But there was once a great medicine man 

Who, on his deathbed 

Told his son,

And his granddaughters.

He told me, “Tell the people not to cry. 

Tell the people to be happy”

If you go outside and look up into the sky, 

It doesn’t matter if the sky is blue,

Or if you see the puffy clouds,

Whether they be white or gray, or at the sunset,

The deep purple and pink and tangerine,

You will have a deep feeling inside 

That the sun is always shining.

There is always light somewhere.

Sometimes the sun depends on you 

To be like the moon

And reflect the rays of living light

In beautiful ways here on this earth.

Sometimes I hear a parent say,

“Stop crying.”

This is not the same.

They tell their children to look the other way,

Deny what is and try to look happy anyway,

But that’s not Faith. 

Faith is seeing things exactly like they are,

Accepting them,

And knowing that,

Not only the Sun, but also 

The cosmos and the stars shine, too,

To the space around you in a way that makes miracles possible.

Every minute of every day this great power is available 

To those who clear the arena of their minds

Of doubt and fear 

And let the great creator appear

And replenish the energetic dance

Of true power around them.

And so it is something very different I say to you today.

This is not for the children who play upon the earth,

Because they already know.

This is for the grown ass people:

“Tell the people not to cry.

Tell the people to be happy,”

The echo of my grandfather.

-jenn