But the longer I studied and looked at it, with more and more children involved in killings.
Being not only victims but perpetrators as well, brought on such angry, desperate feelings.
Everything looked like such a mess, a disaster. I could only shake my head in disgust.
With children starving, and all these nations, that remain divided by hatred and mistrust.
Air and water being polluted almost beyond help, sometimes makes me feel frantic.
Just imagining earthly life one more generation from now, leaves my mind in a panic.
But it wasn’t hard to find others with good intentions, wanting to help and felt the same way.
They had great ideas about how to prevent our planet from being used up and thrown away.
And after listening to them, I felt like we were finally getting somewhere, like it was a start.
No longer was it hopeless, we could change it, we could save it, if everyone did their part.
But not everyone did their part, some did, but they weren’t stopping it for good.
This allowed doubt to reenter my heart, and made me wonder if we even could.
change this world, solve its problems, save our children...could we? I didn’t know.
Unfortunately the one thing I knew was that just by wishing for it would not make it so.
So what was I to do? I am but one person. Besides, those problems weren’t really mine.
Those problems were out there, not in my life, they were other people’s, I’d be fine.
But after having said that, I knew it wasn’t true. Those problems weren’t just “out there.”
They aren’t just other people’s or I wouldn’t feel the way I do, I wouldn’t have such care.
I wouldn’t feel the tears from a crying child, or the struggle of a sea gull in an oil spill.
I wouldn’t hear the scream of a mother over the loss of her child, I just would not feel.
But because I do and I have acknowledged this, I can no longer pretend to not see.
I can no longer live my solitary life protected yet afraid, for the pain of life touches me.
But the joy of life is so much stronger than the pain, and it alone has the ability to heal.
But in order for it to do so, we will have to let down our guards, open up and just feel.
Living a life of solitude and fear, just “seeing” the problems is so much easier than change.
For to change one has to love, which means complete self honesty, something all so strange.
But we are going to have to face ourselves, our entire selves, and the fears we’ve compiled.
Then the love we discover will become the healer of life, and we will be earth’s loving child.
It will be hard at first, being alone so long, to afraid to love, people reach out, you refrain.
You’ve protected your heart, yourself for so long. Can love possibly be more real than pain?
I can’t promise that it is. But perhaps it might be. Together we could discover.
Together we could love life enough, to give our loving planet a chance to recover.
Say to yourself “Love is our Refuge.” Say it until its truth sinks into the very core of your soul.
Say it until you know it, are so sure of it, that to find the courage to love becomes your only goal.
Find the courage to accept yourself, be true to your heart, to be able look yourself in the face.
Find this Love, feel this Love, not only until fear goes, but until Joy ripples through in its place.
Love is our Refuge, it’s our everlasting arms, so untiring, so safe, and so sure.
Love is all these things to us, but at the same time it can be mother earth’s cure.
Knowing this now, I can honestly say “I will change the world.” And this makes me smile.
For I realize now, that the most I could ever do for this earth, is to be its loving child.
By: Kristal Kay Prather