This is from the Poem, "The White Magnolia Tree," by Helen Deutsch: Oh, valiant and untamed were we, When we planted the white magnolia tree! And the white magnolia grew and grew, Holding our love within its core, And every year it bloomed anew, And we were twenty-one no more. No more untamed, no more so free, Nor so young, nor so wild and aflame were we. Dearer to us grew other things: Easy sleep, books, a day's quiet holiday, Good talk beside a fire, the beauty of old faces... We have known many things since then: The death of a child and the bitter lesson That a heart which breaks can mend itself again (That it can and must be done), And what loyalty can mean, And how real a word like courage can become, And that solitude can be rich and gratifying And quite different from loneliness... There is so little the serious heart requires: Friends, faith, a window open to the world, Pride in work well done, And strength to live in a world at war And still maintain the heart's own private peace... Dear Heaven, I give thanks to thee For things I did not know before, For the wisdom of maturity, For bread, and a roof, and for one thing more... Thanks because I still can see The bloom on the white magnolia tree!