We are the holders of hope
Not imagined and wishful
Not ephemeral or wistful

We hold in our hearts the reality and wonder of life
The beauty and treasure that is here 
Every moment
Every breath

We know this 
Just as we know its opposite
The places of fear and despair
Of violence and suffering
Of hopelessness

We have lived with such emptiness
We have touched the terror of the deep dark 
We understand its cultivation by the very society we have been raised in
And yet we are still committed to being here
In this life 
With this life

We know this precious life is stronger
Softer and stronger
Tender and stronger 
Brighter and stronger
More powerful and expansive than the tiny world created by those who would try and blind us
By those who would like us to forget

We know the light of the sun of the day and the stars at night
We know the light of our heart and our spirit
The light that guides through the deep dark
The light of liberation 
Of change
Of life itself

This is what shines in each and every one of us
This is what keeps us seeking the way home 
To remember the wholeness of who we are
To feel the rightness of what life has for us
What the trees have for us
What the ocean and bees
The birds and mountains
The children and elders
The rivers and dragonflies
The wind and rain and snow
What all of our relatives 
Our ancestors
Our communities 
Have for us

We know 
Even when most are running head first towards an illusion
To a nightmare of death and destruction
Of numbness and consumption
To a house on fire 
Where instead of seeing what is real and what is not
Instead of listening to the whispers of their hearts 
They run towards a dream they have been sold 
But is not and never was theirs to have
Where they fight over which room is the finest 
With the best view
The biggest tv
The softest sheets

We know instead
To keep holding on to this precious life
This precious light
Cupped protectively in our sometimes shaking hands

We know 
To sing and live and share it as we can
To keep it alive 
To place it with reverence deep into our hearts
Like weathered fingers planting seeds into fertile soil
For that is what it asks us to do