The Evening Birds

What does it mean to save the world?

Upon Apocalyptic doomsday countdowns of

Those who say everything’s getting worse, I say: 

Heaven! It doesn’t make sense when I feel better,

Watching my own bloom blossom open into Life.

Hear the evening birds as dark grows

And new day begins, and always

The ocean, just over the dune,

Among all the other music 

The silence surrounding me sounds.

It’s the Tiyoweh, the sacred silence

That is to be found when we give ourselves

The moment,

A gift within a gift within a gift:

To sit. To remember.

That is the human life that can hold

All these things

And lift a pen to write the prayer

That records and gives words to

The heart that sings.

To save the world is to be one’s self

Wholly, highly, honestly, quietly.

Lovingly, gently, patiently, respectfully.

Grateful, to know the door is being held open

By the giants that have come before

So that we may walk the steps

Upon each our path

And life on the page

Of the one heart song

To keep each other from falling off the edge.

*according to the old Celtic way, the new day begins when the sun goes down.

*Tiyoweh is a native American word for Stillness, or The Great Sacred Silence.