Grains of Sand in Your Life
By Don Iannone

How far you’ve come in your life.
Bet you’d never have guessed
the amazing things you’d do,
given where you came from
and how you started out.
It seemed like so many things
were working against you,
when you struggled with your first grade reading,
and when you finished next to last
in fifth grade basketball try-outs.
Remember when you were six,
and how you cried that hot summer night
because you were too frightened
to sleep out in the back yard?
Now just look at you,
and the amazing person you’ve become.
Like the irritating grain of sand in the oyster’s shell
that helps give rise to a beautiful pearl,
your struggles make you who you are.
Give thanks for the grains of sand in your life
and the growth they spark.