The Heart of It
It’s hard to say when I started. Was it alone in the new-born incubator that I decided to keep on keeping on? Maybe it was in my toddler stumbles, showing off my new steps to a circle of grandparents cheering me on?
Of course there’s important markers: like when I got my first job teaching middle school. Or when I got laid off from it. Or when I finally quit (on my own accord). There was the time I got certified as a hypnotherapist. Then when I directed my first show. The time when I starred in my own. It certainly marked a beginning when I packed my bags to live in Mexico. Then Hawaii. Then Zimbabwe. Then Mount Shasta. Then Minnesota. Then back home. Sometimes I packed for no where at all. There were, of course, all the things that broke, and then there were those that healed.
It’s hard to know how to say when I started when it still feels like the start.
So instead I’ll tell you why I’m here now:
I love this Earth so much. Even as it has given me its fair share of challenges, every trial has been worth the colors when the sun rises and sets, the flashlight moon making day out of night, and the stars who remind us that even when the moon is gone there are still specks of light.
So even as the airwaves are cluttered by endless warnings, I still hear whispers of hope. We are not the first generation to fear an apocalypse. Each has faced its own threat of The End. Each has doubted itself in front of the insurmountable.
Still humanity has found its way. I know we will do the same.
I don’t think we can help it, not with a love like ours. Never mind the news: every day I witness acts of kindness that offer proof.
Deep within us all there is an unexplainable courage and talent to overcome. I know because I have met it, more than once. It’s feels like love.
Of course there is no script, no map to guide us through the challenges of our times, and we have all made mistakes. But somehow parents raise their children, and I trust we will do the same.
So long as the sun rises, we are granted the opportunity to raise a world that is joyfully alive. There is always a chance to follow the small voice inside, the crazy whisper that nudges us into magnificence, and tends to put it all on the line. But what fun would it be if it wasn’t an adventure? No doubt it hasn’t always been easy, but the fact that it has been -at all- is miraculous.
So I’m here to sing praises to our victories. To root for the hearts that keep on beating. To celebrate the hands that keep serving. To soothe the worries that still linger in the chatter of my mind. To be a reminder that a love like this is worth the climb.
To give thanks that, to this day, we are still alive.
Of course there’s important markers: like when I got my first job teaching middle school. Or when I got laid off from it. Or when I finally quit (on my own accord). There was the time I got certified as a hypnotherapist. Then when I directed my first show. The time when I starred in my own. It certainly marked a beginning when I packed my bags to live in Mexico. Then Hawaii. Then Zimbabwe. Then Mount Shasta. Then Minnesota. Then back home. Sometimes I packed for no where at all. There were, of course, all the things that broke, and then there were those that healed.
It’s hard to know how to say when I started when it still feels like the start.
So instead I’ll tell you why I’m here now:
I love this Earth so much. Even as it has given me its fair share of challenges, every trial has been worth the colors when the sun rises and sets, the flashlight moon making day out of night, and the stars who remind us that even when the moon is gone there are still specks of light.
So even as the airwaves are cluttered by endless warnings, I still hear whispers of hope. We are not the first generation to fear an apocalypse. Each has faced its own threat of The End. Each has doubted itself in front of the insurmountable.
Still humanity has found its way. I know we will do the same.
I don’t think we can help it, not with a love like ours. Never mind the news: every day I witness acts of kindness that offer proof.
Deep within us all there is an unexplainable courage and talent to overcome. I know because I have met it, more than once. It’s feels like love.
Of course there is no script, no map to guide us through the challenges of our times, and we have all made mistakes. But somehow parents raise their children, and I trust we will do the same.
So long as the sun rises, we are granted the opportunity to raise a world that is joyfully alive. There is always a chance to follow the small voice inside, the crazy whisper that nudges us into magnificence, and tends to put it all on the line. But what fun would it be if it wasn’t an adventure? No doubt it hasn’t always been easy, but the fact that it has been -at all- is miraculous.
So I’m here to sing praises to our victories. To root for the hearts that keep on beating. To celebrate the hands that keep serving. To soothe the worries that still linger in the chatter of my mind. To be a reminder that a love like this is worth the climb.
To give thanks that, to this day, we are still alive.