The Age of Not Knowing by Maira Kalman

What era are we in?

The era of not knowing.

In that there is so much to know,
the only recourse is not to know.
Or, we are incapable of knowing what we need to know.

Which, like everything, can have a good side and a bad side.

The bad is that we don’t know what will happen.
And the anxiety this provokes is vast and constant.
What new terror lurks?

The good is that we don’t know what will happen 
and it could be a pleasant surprise.
The other good is that we can decide what we need 
to have happen in the moment. And take action.
Go down the stairs and go outside.
Go up the stairs and into the room.

We don’t know the outcome of doing something.
Again, it is impossible to know. 
But the life must be lived and the chances must be taken.

And perhaps it won’t be all bad.

 You never know.

For the Senses by John O'Donohue

May the touch of your skin

Register the beauty

Of the otherness

That surrounds you.

May your listening be attuned

To the deeper silence

Where sound is honed

To bring distance home.

May the fragrance

Of a breathing meadow

Refresh your heart

And remind you you are

A child of the earth.

And when you partake

Of food and drink,

May your taste quicken

To the gift and sweetness

That flows from the earth.

May your inner eye

See through the surfaces

And glean the real presence

Of everything that meets you.

May your soul beautify

The desire of your eyes

That you might glimpse

The infinity that hides

In the simple sights

That seem worn

To your usual eyes.

For the One Who is Exhausted by John O'Donohue

When the rhythm of the heart becomes hectic,

Time takes on the strain until it breaks;

Then all the unattended stress falls in

On the mind like an endless, increasing weight.

The light in the mind becomes dim.

Things you could take in your stride before

Now become laborsome events of will.

Weariness invades your spirit.

Gravity begins falling inside you,

Dragging down every bone.

The tide you never valued has gone out.

And you are marooned on unsure ground.

Something within you has closed down;

And you cannot push yourself back to life.

You have been forced to enter empty time.

The desire that drove you has relinquished.

There is nothing else to do now but rest

And patiently learn to receive the self

You have forsaken in the race of days.

At first your thinking will darken

And sadness take over like listless weather.

The flow of unwept tears will frighten you.

You have traveled too fast over false ground;

Now your soul has come to take you back.

Take refuge in your senses, open up

To all the small miracles you rushed through.

Become inclined to watch the way of rain

When it falls slow and free.

Imitate the habit of twilight,

Taking time to open the well of color

That fostered the brightness of day.

Draw alongside the silence of stone

Until its calmness can claim you.

Be excessively gentle with yourself.

Stay clear of those vexed in spirit.

Learn to linger around someone of ease

Who feels they have all the time in the world.

Gradually, you will return to yourself,

Having learned a new respect for your heart

And the joy that dwells far within slow time.

Let Them Not Say by Jane Hirshfield

Let them not say:   we did not see it.
We saw.

Let them not say:   we did not hear it.
We heard.

Let them not say:   they did not taste it.
We ate, we trembled.

Let them not say:   it was not spoken, not written.
We spoke,
we witnessed with voices and hands.

Let them not say:  they did nothing.
We did not-enough.

Let them say, as they must say something: 

A kerosene beauty.
It burned.

Let them say we warmed ourselves by it,
read by its light, praised,
and it burned.

Happy 51st Earth Day with Earthrise by Amanda Gorman

The following poem by Inaugural Youth Poet Laureate of the United States Amanda Gorman was read from stage at the Los Angeles Climate Reality Leadership Corps Training on Tuesday, August 28, 2018. You can view Amanda reciting the poem with this YouTube video.

Our Purpose in Poetry:

Or, Earthrise

Dedicated to Al Gore and The Climate Reality Project 

On Christmas Eve, 1968, astronaut Bill Anders 

Snapped a photo of the earth

As Apollo 8 orbited the moon.

Those three guys 

Were surprised

To see from their eyes

Our planet looked like an earthrise

A blue orb hovering over the moon’s gray horizon, 

with deep oceans and silver skies. 

It was our world’s first glance at itself 

Our first chance to see a shared reality, 

A declared stance and a commonality; 

A glimpse into our planet’s mirror,

And as threats drew nearer,

Our own urgency became clearer,

As we realize that we hold nothing dearer 

than this floating body we all call home. 

We’ve known

That we’re caught in the throes

Of climactic changes some say

Will just go away,

While some simply pray

To survive another day;

For it is the obscure, the oppressed, the poor, 

Who when the disaster

Is declared done,

Still suffer more than anyone. 

Climate change is the single greatest challenge of our time, 

Of this, you’re certainly aware.

It’s saddening, but I cannot spare you

From knowing an inconvenient fact, because

It’s getting the facts straight that gets us to act and not to wait. 

So I tell you this not to scare you, 

But to prepare you, to dare you 

To dream a different reality, 

Where despite disparities

We all care to protect this world,

This riddled blue marble, this little true marvel 

To muster the verve and the nerve

To see how we can serve

Our planet. You don’t need to be a politician

To make it your mission to conserve, to protect, 

To preserve that one and only home

That is ours,

To use your unique power

To give next generations the planet they deserve. 

We are demonstrating, creating, advocating 

We heed this inconvenient truth, because we need to be anything but lenient

With the future of our youth. 

And while this is a training,

in sustaining the future of our planet, 

There is no rehearsal. The time is 

Now

Now

Now, 

Because the reversal of harm,

And protection of a future so universal 

Should be anything but controversial. 

So, earth, pale blue dot 

We will fail you not. 

Just as we chose to go to the moon 

We know it’s never too soon

To choose hope.

We choose to do more than cope 

With climate change 

We choose to end it—

We refuse to lose.

Together we do this and more

Not because it’s very easy or nice

But because it is necessary,

Because with every dawn we carry

the weight of the fate of this celestial body orbiting a star. 

And as heavy as that weight sounded, it doesn’t hold us down, 

But it keeps us grounded, steady, ready, 

Because an environmental movement of this size 

Is simply another form of an earthrise. 

To see it, close your eyes.

Visualize that all of us leaders in this room

and outside of these walls or in the halls, all

of us changemakers are in a spacecraft,

Floating like a silver raft

in space, and we see the face of our planet anew.

We relish the view;

We witness its round green and brilliant blue,

Which inspires us to ask deeply, wholly:

What can we do?

Open your eyes.

Know that the future of

this wise planet

Lies right in sight:

Right in all of us. Trust

this earth uprising.

All of us bring light to exciting solutions never tried before

For it is our hope that implores us, at our uncompromising core, 

To keep rising up for an earth more than worth fighting for.