There are cries that come
like weather—
loud, sudden,
gone before they finish saying
what needed to be said.

And then there are the others.
The ones that wait for years
to find a home
safe enough
to be heard.

Tonight, it wasn’t just a song
that broke you—

it was the quiet
after the song ended,
the part where someone stayed.

No questions
or fixing.
Just presence,
while you folded
into the sound of your own heart
finally unclenching.

You didn’t cry because you were weak.

You cried because
you were ready
to stop pretending
it didn’t matter.

And the silence that followed
wasn’t empty—
it was full of everything
you never got to say.

So let this be the night
you remember not what shattered,

but who stayed
long enough
to help you gather the pieces.

Do each of you realize that you are sacred, that
every creation in the Cosmos is sacred? Why
have all who have ever lived not come to the
realization that all are sacred? The Supreme Being
imbued each with sacredness. It is your inviolate
worth, not the money you make, not the job you have,
not the title you hold, not the house you live in, not
the car you drive. Turn inward to realize these truths,
then embrace them. That's when you will become truth
personified, and your epiphany will be that you share
it with all else. You will come intuitively, inescapably,
to feel, to know, in your heart and soul, that love
is the offspring of knowing you are sacred.

Because the above is true, you would love
yourself, and love would be your response to all
situations. And when you give love, you beget love,
so, in time, the world would become a place of loving.
No more hurtful, lethal acts. No more harm, only
harmony. Love would be Earth's modus operandi.
This is how you make love.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks