BEING HUMAN

Hello, friends. I came across a beautiful video recently, Julia Butterfly Hill reciting an amazing poem "Human", which describes us in all of our contradictions.

I hope the link below works for you. I was unable to find an access to insert the beautiful video of her reciting the poem. I include the text, but hope you will watch the video - sheer beauty that goes straight to the human heart. It is two and a half minutes long.

https://www.facebook.com/JuliaButterflyHillOfficial/videos/1904733226982566

HUMAN

We are the species that writes lullabies and builds bombs.
We've sent poems into space and held the hands of the dying.
We've thrown our bodies into riot lines, stood before tanks,
and run into burning buildings for strangers.
We've also scrolled past war with dinner on our laps and called it "news".
We hold each other through the unthinkable
and still fund the machines that make it happen.
We speak of nature like a lover and treat her like a landfill.
We marvel at her beauty then leave plastic in her gut.
We cross oceans for love and cross them again for war.
We are a paradox like everything in life.
Capable of mercy and monstrosity in the same breath.
And still something tender survives.
We are wired for connection and empathy
no matter how distracted, how programmed
how praised we are for surviving in a system
designed to keep us numb.
There comes a moment when the grief
breaks through the dam we built to temper our humanity.
Something in us refuses to die.
A child's cry we can't unhear.
A man digging through the rubble with his bare hands
searching for pieces of his family.
A woman screaming at the sky as her entire lineage is erased
before her own eyes.
And suddenly the comfort doesn't fit.
The dissociation does not hold any more.
We feel it all, the grief, the rage and the unbearable need to do something.
And it does not make us weaker.
It makes us dangerous to every system built on staying disconnected.
Because once we truly remember
we stop pretending this is normal.
And that's how we come back to life.
That's how we return to our humanity,
to the part of us that knows how to listen,
refuses to look away and dares to hope.
It's not too late to be human again. 

***

This may be a bit longer read than usual, my friends, but the information (and hopefully inspiration) I think is worth it. Julia Butterfly Hill, when she was only 23, after recovering from a catastrophic accident which changed her life, spent 738 days living on a four by six foot platform in the upper branches of a 1000 year old redwood tree called Luna, in order to save its life. She brought international attention to the plight of the endangered redwood forests of Humboldt, California. Her efforts saved the tree, along with a 200 foot buffer zone surrounding it.

(On a side note, my friend, poet and author Christine Lowther,  led a movement here in Tofino in 2002, raising funds to buttress and support an 800 year old cedar Named Eik which was in danger of being cut down. Eik is still standing, a venerable being greeting visitors to our town.)

Proving the point that individuals and small local groups can and do accomplish things, when motivation and dedication are high. "Small things with great love," as Mother Teresa said.

Julia is a motivational speaker, author and activist, with an amazing story, told in her book The Legacy of Luna.

This poem really knocked me out, as I have been weighed down by what is happening on this distressed planet. It raised my spirits and the hope that truly we cannot live without.

I had to share the message, as it is so important and so needed. But I leave the prompt wide open for you to write whatever response you have to this video, and these words. Whatever arises in you is what is meant to be written. 

I look forward to whatever you are moved to share.