I’ll have to learn the way to
live in peace amongst their affinity
for war, I’ll have to learn how to be a
gardener, grower, lover
instead of a fighter, destroyer, hater
I’ll have to reconcile the way in which
my daily act of existing perpetuates
harm, I’ll have to try to find ways in
which I can harness the power that my
privilege provides for
good, for non-violence,
for peace
I do not claim to know
the exact pathway to unity
but I do know that my feet and hands in the
soil, are better than my mind tangled
up in a 24 hour news cycle
I do not claim to have
an answer to the inequity
but I do know that every decision
I make can contribute to a world
in which I want to live, or one that
I want to get rid of
I am learning how to hold
the magnitude of chaos and pain
in the same heart that finds joy
in the subtle movement of trees in the wind
I glean wisdom from the writers, artists, and farmers
before me and around me
I used to pray and then I stopped praying
I found a new definition for salvation,
and now I can pray again
Prayer is a surrender, offering, and plea
all at once
I think true salvation is the belief that
every living thing is sacred
and the fruit of this belief
is the participation in peace
the defiance of injustice
and the pursuit of a new earth
To be saved is to remember
the wholeness and the hope
To garden means to trust
nourishment can be born from
darkness, we just have to
lean towards the light