I have decided for life.
I have decided to grow,
to do more than survive,
to grow through the fog to the sun,
that attractive star.
I have decided to ignore
the coaxings, the threats,
the requests to turn into stone.
I have chosen to keep in motion.
I have decided
to take my chances with the abyss,
to weather the painful in-betweens,
to wake in my own blood,
to mourn my lost innocence
in the process of growth,
because all growth has as it's heartflower
pain in it's endless variations,
and its petals are the many colors of suffering.
But I have also decided
to overcome all obstacles,
to stand triumphant at the end,
the child tuned into man
and into child again.
—Ulrich Schaffer
