I love you for what you are

I love you for what you are
but I love you yet more for what you are going to be.
I love you not so much for you realities,
as for your ideas
I pray for your desires that they may be great,
rather than your satisfactions
which may be so hazardously little.
A satisfied flower is one whose petals are about to fall.
the most beautiful rose is one hardly more than a bud.
Where in the pangs and ecstasies of desire
are working for a larger and finer growth.
Not always shall you be what you are now.
You are going forward toward something great.
I am on the way with you and therefore I love you.

Carl Sandburg