#1 Where Have We Been?

Mostly rational times:
ordinary, usual, familiar,
living in fear and judgment, control
single, siloed
working hard to feed and shelter ourselves
lulled to complacency
in our own brains
and independently scattered.

Where have we been?
We have been watching history
repeat itself and yet rising
with love and purpose
to move forward again.
Risking life to protest
loss of safety for children
name calling and objectifying
fighting for feminism and thinking
we’d made progress
struggling for justice
the seemingly eternal struggle: love
is winning, but oh so slowly.
We’ve been working
toward a better world
(but we are backsliding dramatically).

Were we ever star children
seeking at sea,
coming from a place of hope?

Where have we been?
Through many trials,
learning, discovering, deepening,
suffering, hiding
what we have lived through:
chaos, conflict,
struggle, growth,
unity, confusion,
searching, heaviness,
poverty and ignorance,
evolution and the Big Bang.

Where have we been?
We have been everywhere,
star to sea to cave to city,
from brain to heart to soul to star,
not really knowing what was going on,
building home away from home
trying to move forward
on a long journey
of dreams and hopes unfolding
through war, through peace,
through protest, through loss,
through grief, through joy, through growth.

Odyssey seeking
Starchild feeling
carefree in the dark
more present, less busy.
I have been Catholic
struggling to be a better person
and now I’m trying out new things.
I have been in Dhaka, Bangladesh,
and now I’m in Moscow, Idaho
still trying to figure things out.
I have been by your side, and you
have been by mine
in the past, in the present
with my feet on the ground.
Near the earth feel
the soil through your fingers
and toes looking
at the stars.

We have been in love
in the best of intentions,
in hope and sorrow.
We have been to many places,
and what we have found
may astound, money does not
always abound where happiness
is all around.

We have been stardust.
We have been light and air.
We have been ocean waves
and stony mountains.
So are we still,
the all-seeing eyes
of a universe immortal.
Where have we been?
We have been together as a community.
We have been on the journey of life.
We come from light
into the darkness
and search for a beam
perhaps a chalice
to lead us forward.

We are like the pinecone
that can only open
and bring new life through
the heat of fire.

What Is Happening To Us?

All is accelerating
time is happening to us
craziness clarifying values
chaos everywhere
in the here and now
riding the river trying
to steer, waiting
for family held back
by independence and
responsibility to stay
in “our own lane.”

Brother let us in…

Control the justice system
Control the media
Control the military
Control the people, coup
We are being attacked
by our own country
tearing apart, strangling fear, imposed chaos.

We’re going back in time of our advancements
in racism and equal rights for all,
We are moving backwards
in a fog, occasionally aware,
denial, worry and concern broadening
our collective dreams
and hopes are being challenged
by a few normalizing crazy,
greed, and narcissism,
disruption, derailment, disunion,
delusion, despair, mistrust, bullying,
housing insecurity, depression,
condemnation of the marginalized.

Feeling overwhelmed with hopeless despair
on many days, we are stunned,
losing rights and freedoms,
we are becoming distant
from our humanity
and compassion for others.

Our country is being torn
apart by tribal behavior,
feeding attempts to devalue and divide
resisting, unfamiliar, losing, attacked.
We have been protected and safe—
that is missing now.
Some of us have struggles
with connection and understanding.
We don’t agree on the path forward.
We are getting older.
We are doubtful and afraid,
the future seems bleak.

So many are made fearful, hateful.
It’s a hugely hurtful and scary result.
Yet we are rising—
we are hoping and
we are working
still struggling to be positive
joyful even,
a journey that makes us who we are.

“We will be held back until we connect.”
We must protest and speak out,
a grassroots uprising fighting
for justice, revelation
finding joy in small things
new opportunities that build
community, creativity, and connection,
working with young people
learning independence
practicing small acts of resistance
and seeking ways to embody love

We have been shattered and broken—
and that’s how we find each other

Reaching, trying, iterating gratitude,
We’re thinking more about where we’re going.
Good things are happening to us.
We are learning and coming together.
We are recognizing our strengths.
We are challenged.
We are threatened.
We are witnesses.
We are finding community and togetherness
with others who won’t accept the status quo.
We are rising up.
We are changing.
We are flowing down the river of life
led by our higher power, when we don’t resist,
life is easier
with hope and love in our hearts
we are going toward a greater truth.
Different journeys that make us unique.

We are shells cracking,
seeds shattering,
lightning striking.
We are the primal cry
of new life becoming,
breaking down old, tired, and worn
out ways—birthing a new, kinder, gentler world.

The Earth is experiencing
an awakening to more
honesty, adaptation, endurance,
aligning, self-discovery.

Eventually, after the ups and downs
of process and regress,
Changes.
Some good, some bad
some intended, some unintended.

But all are accepted.

3 – Will It Always Be This Way?

I listen
to news in small increments
so not to be overwhelmed.
My brain cannot see through
the destruction that is wrought
by a sick tyrant.
Our time has seemed
to be disappearing.
It did not have to be this way.
Afraid of what will happen
to our country, afraid
to even think about it.
When will we learn?

History will repeat itself
unless we follow a new way.
It has to get better
but it might get worse first.

Will it always be this way?
I thought not.
I hope not.
New paths, unknown
keep spreading
the love and understanding.
There is a lot of good
that depends on our actions.
The power of love has
to prevail over hate.

This too shall pass.
Change will come.
All things are possible,
we create in mind before it forms.
We are being asked, to test,
how much love can we share?

The holy order of the cosmos:
All that lives must die.
All the dies must be reborn.
There is no new thing under the sun yet
every moment is unique, never to repeat.
The sun sets the same sky every day
miraculous and unrepeatable
the world cycles through seasons
of death and rebirth.
The evil of the present will drift
away, worn down
by the sands of time and I
will carry hope and love forward.
Anything is possible.

Always changing, always the same,
change is constant
as illusions come and go.
God is change. God is love. Love prevails.
But it is we who are the creators, inevitable.
We can make good things happen.
Come help nudge the steering wheel.
If the world falls apart
we come together.

The constant in life is change.
Extreme edges cannot hold.
Flow finds its center.
Nothing is ever changeless
except love.

We live in the present
even if we don’t want to.
There will always be forces of evil.
How can they be outnumbered?
What change will we work toward?

It will not always be this way!
Love, kindness will prevail
like a seed sown, a matter
of time before it blooms
our collective dreams and hopes
can never die, only pause.
And I know because
unions changed work laws in the 20s
and women can vote
and we share water fountains
and sit together on buses.

Will it always be this way?
No, no, no!
Not if I patiently persist.
Not if I choose not to let it.
It will continue to evolve
and yes it will
in many ways be this way
and that’s okay.
It’s something.
I can accept what is.
We will make it better.
Our children will make it better.

Star by star
the world will end
making space for change.

4 – What Else Is Possible?

We can be curious
We can be with each other
We can see a better world for all
We can love and lose and carry
and celebrate.
We can come together to help fight
injustices and cruelties.
We can heal each other
We can start again
driving the arc of justice forward.

Spring will come.
Everything is possible:
Kindness, generosity, hope,
peace, healing, connection,
growth, community, enlightenment,
dignity for all, beauty, love,
understanding, and letting go.
Gratitude for what good has come
and is being done, and fight
for what is needed.
So much more,
an infinite number of possibilities,
from chaos comes renewal comes
new dreams and new hopes.

And love is at the center.

To be the change you want to see,
change who we are or stay
the same and make the same
choices, try to
stay open to possibilities.
It will not always be this way.
Peace and good will still are
amid the suffering, hope
that a new day is dawning,
a refined trajectory:

A world that is kind and just
and everyone is treated well,
everyone has enough
(not too much but enough),
a community of love and resistance,
a community of heart,
putting the world back together.
A return to rational and responsible leadership,
to level the living fields everywhere
so all are held in love and respect.
Imagine: What we can conceive we can achieve.

We are called to act for good.
Whatever you can dream, do it now.
Boldness has genius,
providence moves too.
Choose with your heart
extreme, active compassion.
Amplify the good and make more.
Continue, open heart and open mind,
perpetual awareness of the presence
of love and kindness
to bring new creations.

We’re coming together
to strengthen our community
trying to stay positive.
Support and care for each other,
put in more work to make things work,
our actions create the change we wish to see.

Dreams make oracles of us all.
Seek the child dreaming
deep in the mountain you’ve made
of yourself and come to know
the wide and endless sky.