unspeakable loss/overwhelming joy

This summer has held some of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen. Just yesterday, the mountains glowed in a haze, and the orange was so brilliant and rich it looked like paint you could drag your fingers through.

It smells like a campfire everywhere. The air is almost unbreathable.

Thousands of acres burning. Trees and brush and grass vital to the ecosystem. Every acre that burns feels like a tragedy.

But nature doesn’t know tragedy, only the cycle of taking and giving. There are years of growing, reproducing, expanding, and then there are years of dying, decomposing, fertilizing. Each part is necessary and exists in balance with the other. Mother nature will rebuild every acre. The plants and animals will return. It will take decades, but it will repair.

Humans, on the other hand, know tragedy because it is the trail we leave when we forget our place as part of nature and part of community. Humans start fires and wars and water shortages and irreversible global changes. Humans hoard money and houses and food and resources.

And humans also support nature in replanting, protecting from erosion, preserving precious water supplies, restricting waste, and feeding our communities.

Humans radically ignore balance and prioritize wealth and financial growth.

And humans also choose sustainability and contentment and compassion for nature and their fellow human beings.

Humans are predatory and violent and greedy.

And humans are also protective of the innocent, full of rage at injustice, and choose community wealth over individual wealth.

Humans are indifferent to the tragedies that don’t directly affect them.

And humans are also deeply grieved by genocides half a world away, children who don’t have enough, and every tree that burns in a remote forest.

It is tempting to spend so much time looking at the tragedies that we forget most of us are actively building a beautiful world we want to live in. We are loved by people who don’t even know us. Every ounce of our attention matters.

We fight the power when we need to. Hold the greedy accountable for their crimes.

And find whatever makes us feel part of and do it as often as we can.

We get to make intentional decisions about where our time and attention go. Think less about what we have and more about who we are. Find whatever brings hope and pour ourselves into it.

We can hold the terrifying tragedies and unspeakable loss alongside the immense beauty and overwhelming joy without flinching. We’re big enough for that. We get to be weird and affected and hopeful and build beautiful things together in the process.

I’m so glad we’re doing this together.

crying over Gaza and trees,

kaela