Silenced by life's setbacks, I stop fighting.

Silenced by life's setbacks, I stop fighting. So much energy I have already spent bursting, mechanically and routinely, against the wall of my laments. What has it left me but a bitter weariness?

So I bow my head, aware of my failings, which are not past deeds but lapses of my presence. My proud guilts, heavy with vanity, henchmen of the anxiety that feeds my clumsy habit of failing again, now lose their validity.

Oh, longed-for humility! How precise your gaze, how praised your greatness! Tell me how to reach the tips of your toes. Teach me how to surrender to the majesty that burns in my chest. Kindle in me the vigor of that silence which, knowing its single origin, imperturbably accepts the multiplicity of its manifestations.

With moist eyes I give thanks for all I have: a smile in my soul.