One Small Person's Mission in a Crowded World

 One Small Person’s Mission in a Crowded World

If I had a full time job,

I wouldn’t have time to think

about the fix we’re in.

I wouldn’t worry about 

the crazy presidential mob

that’s taken over our government.

I wouldn’t have time to dread

the next report about more extinctions.

I could pretend that everything

is just fine, in this country that

is supposed to be the best in the world!

But I don’t have a full time job,

unless you count all the weeding

in my big garden, or all the committees

I’m on. Or the thick coat of hair that

my kitties keep depositing on my rugs

and on my clothes, my sheets,

and my chairs. I breathe a mouthful

of air, and sometimes need to

remove the silky hair that drifts up

before I breathe it!  I am struggling

to find ways of cleaning my home!

However, I am technically retired.

So my life is my own. I can decide

how to spend my time. It is a freeing thing.

Yet some days it is hard to remember

what my mission is. If I had a job,

my life would be focused on that.

In retirement, my focus needs to come from within.

And it is hard not to be affected by all the awful

tidings about how cruel we are being to immigrants

or poor people, or plants and animals, or our water,

or how we bomb innocent people across the ocean.

I do care. I love our earth and all its inhabitants.

But the problems seem pretty insurmountable 

for this 81-year-old well-meaning woman.

I took myself out to Nature last night,

to have a deep conversation with that wise creator.

I sat quietly, looking at the tall trees, listening to the wind,

and the birds, watching the rabbits scamper across the path,

the sky scattered with clouds, the sun close to setting.

And I talked to whatever the native americans called

the wise earth mother, healer of wounds,

giver of instructions, balancer in the web of life.

I want to help, I said, but I am so small,

just a tiny being in this huge interconnection of life.

I know it’s important to be guided in the right direction.

I know that if we all worked at bringing our earth back

to health, we could make a big difference.

But it seems such a huge task. And I get discouraged.

What should I do? How can I be inspired to act?

I sat there, breathing deeply, drinking in the beauty,

listening for guidance, trusting it is there if you ask.

And I did hear answers in the wind, in the sky and the trees,

in the quietness and the green world.

The communication wasn’t in English,

or any kind of words. It was heartfelt.

By the time I left to drive home again,

I was calm and peaceful, ready for another day,

ready for another pattern in my life.

What I learned has to do with taking care of myself,

doing my exercises, eating healthy, journalling

to keep myself stable and rooted.

And if I prepare myself each day,

I’ll then know what I can do, I’ll be ready for action.

I’ll be grounded in the vast web of life,

getting inspiration from the earth, from my

fellow inhabitants, sharing in the energy

to bring health to our culture and our world.

I don’t have to be perfect. 

I don’t even have to be good.

But I can live toward the truths I discern.

And I’ll never be alone.