True
Friendship’s Ease
By:
Juliette Lee
Our
resident poet and fundraiser extraordinaire Juliette Lee wrote a beautiful poem
about working at a Non-Profit organization. The poem is below.
True
Friendship’s Ease
As
winter fails into spring’s light ease
I
find myself at my desk again,
mining
Raiser’s Edge for small business partners or friends
who
might provide some charitable relief
to
our budgetary shortfalls and lend
a
small sum or a sponsorship. I leave
as
the young sun sets, and though I leave
in
darkness, I find a golden ease;
Yes,
the work is a challenge--yet I lend
all
I have to it. And each day, I give myself again
because
to serve is a joy and therein I have relief.
The
women who come for services are now my friends.
I
share stories about their savvy and strength to other friends
who
work as professors; after a glass of wine, they leave
thoughtfully.
I know, in some ways, they feel relief
at
honing theorems and sharpening criticisms with ease--
never
facing real hunger or need. But when I see them again,
they
are the hungry ones. They lend
me
ears that are thirsty birds, and my words lend
them
newfound hope in humanity. True friends
lean
over aisles, across borders and bars—never minding, again,
taboos
of race, class, or gender. In service, we leave
assumptions
aside. I learn each day to take my ease
among
women who know actual grace—the relief
of
being who you are, not who you should be. Our jobs relieve
them,
we think. But truthfully, these women lend
us
far more in spiritual worth. And with such ease
they
teach me--a former professor--to befriend
those
whom I once feared: the poor. So when I leave
and
walk the miles home at dusk, marveling again
that
another day has swept past--again, again, again--
I
have to wonder—is it the donors alone that relieve
others
with their charity? What is the truth of a gift? Who leaves
what
legacies? Only stories remain. If my words have any truth to lend
it’s
that these “poor” women’s lives nurture my friends
far
more than my friends’ gifts provide the poor ease.
The
young sun rises early, with ease,
brushing
the sky’s face, clearing its murky eyes. They are friends--
and
neither marvels at who takes or who lends.
