The Key to Life and Living

A very favorite story of mine Is about two seas in Palestine One is a sparkling sapphire jewel, Its waters are clean and clear and cool, Along its shores children play And travelers seek it on their way, And nature gives so lavishly Her choicest gems to the Galilee. But to the south the Jordan flows Into a sea where nothing grows, No splash of fish, no singing bird, No children's laughter is ever heard, The air hangs heavy all around And nature shuns this barren ground. Both seas receive the Jordan's flow, The water is just the same, we know, But one of the seas, like liquid sun, Can warm the hearts of everyone, While farther south another sea Is dead and dark and miserly. It takes each drop the Jordan brings And to each drop it fiercely clings. It hoards and holds the Jordan's waves Until like shackled, captured slaves The fresh, clear Jordan turns to salt And dies within the Dead Sea's vault. But the Jordan flows on rapturously As it enters and leaves the Galilee, For every drop that the Jordan gives Becomes a laughing wave that lives For the Galilee gives back each drop, Its waters flow and never stop. And in the laughing, living sea That takes and gives so generously We find the way to Life and Living Is not in Keeping, But in Giving! Yes, there are two Palestinian seas And mankind is fashioned after these! -- Helen Steiner Rice Return to Prosperity Pages