Life’s a Gift, Not a Curse

Life’s a gift to be celebrated,

Not a curse to be denigrated,

Unlike what they grimly said,

That, “It’s better to be dead.

Life’s a burden, heavy to bear,

Full of woe and onerous care.

From it you must seek to flee,

And from its bonds to be free.

To it you must fully die,

And this is the reason why:

On the world God's put a curse,

So, hatred for it we must nurse.

This world we firmly renounce,

'Fie on it!', so we pronounce.

Don’t be fooled by worldly allure,

It’s a deadly disease with no cure.

This world you must fully shun,

For, here real joy you’ll find none.

Pray that day may soon arrive,

The last you’ll be on Earth alive.

With this world have little to do,

For your own good we tell you,

For it's Satan himself in disguise,

You’ll know this if you get wise.

It’s cruel, harsh, most unkind,

To it you must be fully blind.

For it, have just no concern,

It's glimmer you must spurn.

If in the world’s eyes you fail,

Know it’s a great victory to hail,

And a dismal failure it’s indeed

By worldly measure to succeed.

If in the world you seek to excel,

You’ll pave your way to Hell.

To go to Heaven, up in the sky,

This world you must fully deny,

For this realm, you must know,

Is our most inveterate foe.

If in its snare you get caught,

You’ll reduce to utter naught.

It’s a place vile, most bad,

While here mourn, be sad

So that after death you'll delight

In Heaven, far from its sight.

In this good news you can be glad

That soon liberation will be had

When death whisks you away,

Ending thus your worldly stay.”

Ah, how many they thus misled,

With their call of gloom and dread,

Making life in this world out to be

Some sort of grave calamity,

So that those who fell into their trap,

Believing blindly their noxious crap,

Made of their lives a giant mess,

As I myself did, I must confess,

But then I was led to realise

That their claims were all lies,

I came to know this for sure:

They were wrong to the core,

And while difficult life can be,

It’s also a precious opportunity,

To flower, flourish and to grow,

I’ve now found this is truly so,

And while misery is here found,

Pure joy also here does abound.

This also I’ve now understood:

That with evil here there’s also good,

Ample goodness for us to celebrate

And that we ourselves can create:

A good purpose this does give

For us here on Earth to live.