When my children’s
lives depend
on the fate of a
world that feels
too much
like a dystopian novel,
and humanity
is failing
the simplest tests of
compassion and empathy –
it is too much.
I take them
into the woods
often to learn
the plants
and mushrooms
and berries,
to learn to build shelter
and track animals,
to soak in the
life-sustaining
beauty of our world and
to understand how we fit
with these trees
and cliffs
and squirrels
despite our
educations and
technologies;
despite the ugly sides of
ourselves we see paraded
across the news, and
to know we can blaze
our own path
when we need to.