I heard this beautiful poem by Clint Smith this morning and it made me think of Spring as well as the complexities of the world we live in. In order to function at my best, I have to simultaneously be aware of all the negative possibilities and the glorious, wonderful things that are present in my space. They are happening all at the same time.
I know that focusing on the negative does not nourish my soul. There is so much going on that I cannot control or even influence. If I allow my energy to go in that direction, I will miss the juvenile blue heron wading at the edge of the lake behind our house. If I listen to the news or stay glued to the television, I will miss the beauty of a chirita blossom on a leaf after a rainstorm.
All at Once
"The redwoods are on fire in California.
A flood submerges a neighborhood that sat quiet on the coast for three centuries.
A child takes their first steps and tumbles into a father's arms.
Two people in New Orleans fall in love under an oak tree whose branches bend like sorrow.
A forest of seeds are planted in new soil.
A glacier melts into the ocean and the sea climbs closer to the land.
A man comes home from war and holds his son for the first time.
A man is killed by a drone that thinks his jug of water is a bomb. Your best friend relapses and isn't picking up the phone.
Your son's teacher calls to say he stood up for another boy in class.
A country below the equator ends a 20-year civil war.
A soldier across the Atlantic fires the shot that begins another.
The scientists find a vaccine that will save millions of people's lives.
Your mother's cancer has returned, and doctors say there is nothing else they can do.
There is a funeral procession in the morning and a wedding in the afternoon.
The river that gives us water to drink is the same one that might wash us away."
Our lives are happening all at once. Spring is happening all at once. Make the effort to enjoy them both while they are here.
