Hope at the Crossroads

 

Now, when it is the hardest
to do, let us not lose heart.
Let's hold onto hope,
even in the darkness and despair.

Even when the words we hear
on the morning news,
the nightly news,
make us think the world
has lost its mind,

I hold on to the fact
that buds are poking up
on my cherry tree
that will soon be blossoms.
Baby wolves are being born
in coastal dens
and will soon stalk the shore
near my friend's floathouse,
enchanting her
with their baby howls.

Though this may feel like
the end of all we ever knew,
I dare to hope that it is not.
We are living in a world
that has, for a time, turned dark.
We are badly in need
of leaders who are sane, who are
not driven by greed and corruption.

How is it that, when the choice was so clear,
we wound up here?

I hold on tight to the natural world,
for even when we earthlings
have lost our way,
still Mother Earth unfolds its seasons,
right on time,
and all non-human life
knows what to do.

My love of the natural world is the truest thing I know, and is what I hold onto, when our human systems fail us so completely.