This Paradise

Astounding beauty lies all around.  All those things I craved: the peace, the quiet, the space.  Rivers run turquoise even when the clouds are grey.  Forests stretch out, a tangle of greens.  Photographs capture whispers of the vivid truth, and they all tell me how I live in paradise.

Sometimes I feel it too; to the depth of my bones.  This paradise; it blooms, it sings.  It speaks to me of dreams come true.  I have to take a step back, away from myself, and just drink it in: this is me, I am here; I’m experiencing all these wonderful things.
 
This paradise, it calls and beckons love and joy.  Yet, I walk through this land, this paradise, with a heavy heart.  An ache in my soul.

My paradise...it would be all this, and more.  You would all be here, and I would be whole.