Love life, love the world,
for it is all you have.
Love the stars, and the people,
and the breeze and the rain,
and the reflection
of the lights on the water.

Love because you exist.
Love because you can read this,
because you live in a time
that will one day be thought of
as romantic and golden.

Love because you won't be forever.
Love because
everything is impermanent,
because this day will end,
and never
be visited again.

Love because all we have is enough,
and because
nothing we can imagine
can match it.

Love because there are others
you share the world with,
who love too.

Love the night,
the silence,
the shadow of the trees by the water.
Love the imminence of dawn,
and of things someday gone.

Love the light of a candle
and the warmth
of the earnest conversation lit by it.

Love the joy of sharing the world
with other beings as troubled
but as sensitive to beauty and love
as you are.
Love nature's gentle rattle,
and its tempestuous outbreaks.

Love because you are all
you will ever be,
and life is immense
and beautiful, even in its darkness, and it is yours.