What Held

You come from wide open land,

Not the kind of rewarded ambition,

More one of kindness and care

Where things thrive from that vision.

You learned how to steady the ground,

How to finish what was begun,

How to stand in the quiet

And not feel lonely or undone.

You were the one son who left the ranch

Not in anger, not to rebel,

Just listening for a life

That fit your inner spirit well.

You carried your strength with you,

Planting it where you stood,

Letting it become something fuller,

Helping it reveal something good.

You tend what grows slowly,

Plants shaped by steadfast hands,

A dinner that takes the whole day to make

Because love given time understands.

You read the shape of the weather,

Feel where the future leans,

You know when less is the blessing,

When restraint lets beauty breathe.

You write what you may not say aloud,

With paper and pen given Wings.

Decades of notecards holding your love,

In on paper that sings.

When tears come to signal your wisdom,

As feelings rise in rich truth,

You blink, not from doubt,

But because tenderness lives in you.

I see the man at first light,

In an elegant, wordless motion,

Handing me a cup full of warmth,

Your quiet act of devotion.

I see the man dancing when joy finds him,

The one beside me all the way through,

Through illness, through fear

Still choosing what is steadfast, true.

When you say everything beautiful

In your life comes through me,

I hear the deeper strength underneath,

You were born knowing to see.

Too bright for the dessert life,

Too noble for homes missing art,

The gift of your heart is Amen,

Given Again – And Again – And Again.

_________

Copyright: Ronda LaRue, rondalarue.com 12/2025