To a Shy, Walking Hero

When I was growing up, I had only one hero. He was a big man, with big hands that were gentle and strong. He blocked the sun that he said rose and set on my head from the second I was born. Then at night, he hung the moon, to make sure I had a light to guide me home.

It's damned hard to find heroes who live up to that.

I've found a few, a handful -- boys and girls, women and men -- humans who were more than good, who understood humanity, joy, life, generosity, and in end, unconditional love.

I look with gratitude to a universe that has given me so many heroes. My eyes fill with the emotion of knowing that we are all of the stars. When I'm alone, every one of them sits in the leather chair I don't own, in the den of my imagination. They read. I write. They sleep. I reflect. We breathe the same air on the same planet.

Some things in life you just know. That I know.

I dance on a beach for the heroes I have known. I walk pressing my feet in the sand under a sky only a universe could display. Hearing the water rush, hearing my heart pump, hearing the silent breeze, I sometimes see the hero in me. Mostly, I don't feel alone.

Once you have known a hero, that hero finds a home in your heart. That I know.

I write a soft, grateful thought to a shy, walking hero. I think my way back to believing in a world that turns in harmony. I stand tall under a blue sky in a universe that will not be thwarted, in a universe where people and stars still shine and sometimes even sparkle.

It's damned hard to find heroes.
One star shined for me today.
That I know.

--me strauss Letting me be