POEM: Set

Was I set up by God?
Did God choose me for
special pain,
special learning?
No. It rains on the just and on the unjust.
Such things can happen
in our fallen world.
It happened to me.


Was I set back by what happened to me?
Yes, in some ways.
Financially-
years I didn't work, couldn't work.
Experience I didn't get
doing the work I wanted to be doing.


Was I set apart?
It felt that way.
Old friends left.
Placed on a safe, distant pedestal by others.


But always my pain has set me forth:
Opened doors to my life's mission:
- to comfort in the pain,
- share light in the darkness,
- to see beauty where I might have missed it
and show it to others.


Yes. I am set.
Set to love.
Set to comfort .
Set to go.

--Cherry Winkle Moore
November 20, 1996