A New Way

I’ve been thinking I’d like to say a prayer
for the earth
but everything is moving so fast
I’m afraid the words will just slip off.

Words like—
I’m sorry.
May you be safe.
May you feel free.

Words that any one of us
might like to hear.

Where do they land
when the whole world is starved
for the sound of them
and also too busy to hear?

Just the other day I lost my balance
standing too still, I guess
trying to match my pace
to the trees.

It’s like I wanted to give something good
and saving of myself
to stop all of the taking
and at the same time
my selfish lungs
just wanted to breathe.

The same with the fish
in the sea
and the speckled sunset
and the ordinary robin
singing her song
of belonging
in the rain.

I want every sweet thing
to exist without me
but my wanting
keeps getting
in the way.

I am so hungry, too.

So I wondered—
what if we create
a new kind of axis
altogether?

What if there was actually
a new way
for the world to turn?

I’m not thinking anything grand
or heroic, just a simple tilt
somewhere between gravity and the stars
that would slow this whole thing down
for a while.

That would make it so you felt
your feet on the ground
your heart in your chest
that would open your eyes to seeing
the one you love, like new
in the morning.

A kind of world where we are all fed
by the same prayers—
I’m sorry.
May you be safe.
May you feel free.

The Dalai Lama once said that if every 8 year old was taught meditation, we could end violence within one generation.

So it’s out there.
It’s a thing we can do.

We can breathe ourselves
and each other in
and out
like the waves
like forgiveness
like fall into winter
and then spring.