tender, fierce

Be tender and fierce, my loves.

What is at stake now is too vast for our comprehension.

I try to wrap my heart around it,

To shape my body as a receptor,

But, all this loss is heavy for my small bones, forged in a different specific gravity.

Relationships unraveling.

The weight of forgetfulness is a weight beyond measure.

The lightness with which small-hearted dominators tear the living world apart,

unbearable.

If we could only feel the cuts we make from the view of interbeing,

Would we live differently?

Would we choose differently?

Yes. I have seen it.

We move differently when we feel kinship,

When we open in unarmored empathy to the sacred other in all forms.

What are the textures of these feelings?

How can I explain?

Have you experienced the bliss of a juvenile Bottlenose dolphin?

The maternal patience of a Sumatran orangutan?

The particular way a Pacific Gopher Snake cocks its head in response to spontaneous exclamations of love and appreciation?

The intelligence reflecting from a Green Sea Turtle’s eye — an endless depth approximating the complexity and luminosity of the Milky Way Galaxy?

These things — and so many more — are self evident when one offers attention.

To feel is to praise.

To feel is to grieve.

I am a river of praise and grief.

Daily.

Join me in this river.

Those of us who feel must bear some part of the feeling for what is being lost now.

Our feelings are currencies we offer in reciprocity,

And they carry the potential for new forms of resurgence.

Besides, being unfeeling is its own prison.

And, feeling such things — together — makes them not only bearable, but beautiful.

Our feelings for Life make us trustworthy and vital.

They are the moving ground from which we stay tender,

As we cultivate a very specific ferocity,

Not the ferocity of the Grizzly or the wolverine or the alligator,

But the ferocity of all true humans who know what it means to protect the sacred.

It is our dignity.

It is our truth.

It is WHAT we are.

We are tender, fierce souls whose love stands in care of Life.

This is the birthright of our aliveness,

And, even as it binds us,

It sets us free.