Come What May
Without Expectation
Do everything as if you were
planting a spruce seedling
among stumps in a clearcut,
laying it gently in the earth
where it may or may not grow,
knowing that even if it does
you will not be there to feel
your footsteps cushioned by
its bed of fallen needles—
you will not be there to linger
in glimmered sunlight slanting
on a blanket spread beneath
to catch every inch of shade.
Silence the voices that say,
What if this comes to nothing?
and just keep doing whatever
brings you most alive.
—James Crews