My religion is not a church,
not walls of stone,
not a steeple reaching upward
to prove that heaven is near.

My religion is kindness
people showed me along the way,
the hands that found me
when I did not know how to ask,
the voices that stayed gentle
when the world grew hard.

It lives in those who were there for me,
and those who still are,
not because they had to be,
but because something good inside them
would not let them turn away.

That kind of love
supersedes every religion,
every political view,
every name we give ourselves
to feel separate from one another.

There are special women in my life
who have been there when I needed them,
quiet women, steady women,
women who do not announce their goodness
because goodness is simply what they do.

They understand love
without needing to define it.
They understand charity
without needing to be praised.
They understand friendship
as something lived,
not spoken of loudly.

My words are for them -
for their good hearts,
for their presence,
for the grace they gave me
just by staying close.

If I have faith, it is faith in that.
If I have a prayer, it is gratitude.
If I have a religion, it is the kindness
they carried to me
when I needed it most.