The Most Important Thing Of Them All

She taught me how to love

     And she taught me how to lose 

She taught me how to build a home

    And she taught me how to let it all go

She taught me how to respect myself 

    And she revealed what I can tolerate

She exposed my deepest fears

    And she gave me the brightest of hopes

She gave me so much joy

     And she filled me with the deepest of sorrows

She showed me her soul

    And I showed her my mine

She showed me her legs

    And I let her in my mind 

She became the sun to me

    And then she taught me how to drive home alone in the pitch dark (there were no stars in the sky that night)

She ignited a spark

     And became art

She gave me a dream

      And taught me what it means to believe in something

She peeled off my armor 

     And harvested my bones 

     But left my soul alone to grow

       In the darkness I learned how to see

She taught me what it feels like to be with someone you need

      And she gave me the courage to bleed for something that wasn’t me 

She spoke to me in a language I didn’t know

      And she loved me in a way that healed my soul 

She taught me how to fly

      And she taught me how to fall

She taught me how to love

       And she taught me how to risk it all

I don't know if this is where her and I end,

       Or where we truly begin,

        But it was pretty neat to fly—to touch the sky—

          While being able to learn the most important thing of them all,

                How to rise after the fall. 

CH 4/18/26