The Gift of Despair 

I am darkness and despair; I have come to bring you a great gift,

if you but allow yourself to accept it.

I have come to show you the depths of your own soul.

I have come to show you the emptiness of your illusions.

I have come to heal you through the process of disillusionment.

Sense the beauty of the valley,

and know that the valley shadows

are cast by the mountain peaks.

The valley is no less grand that the mountain.

The shadow is no less beautiful than the sunlight.

RJB (1988)