Johnny Spendor just got
A science place at university.
He worked a lot
And managed it against adversity.

Miss Barbara Telling who taught him,
Died of Hodgkin’s disease soon after.
She was just thirty-three and very slim.
Johnny owed a lot to Barbara and missed her.
That’s life!

Susan got polio when she was young,
And never walked quite right again.
But she used pain like a ladder’s rung,
And made despair a gain.

Despite her walk she was a beauty.
A woman, radiant and profound.
Three lovely children linking her to duty.
Somehow she had turned her life around.
That’s life!

Danny got chewed up even while still little.
Beaten before he even crawled.
His manhood heart grew solitary and brittle,
His soul had scars as if he had been mauled.

Dan found a way of draining out his aches.
He learned that from each one he gained a skill.
Forging medals from the heartbreaks,
Wearing them proudly, eyes bright still.
That’s life!

It isn’t just the good things that give riches.
Not only light and love make dreams come true.
The darkness and the pain are also treasures.
Even the beaten and the injured can come through.

Life is not a should be, or a why not,
It’s not a hope for, or a why can’t I?
More like what’s happening, what you’ve got,
Everything that comes, live or die.
That’s life.

Copyright ©2001 Tony Crisp