For the Grandchildren
Each week I try to write something in the books I am making for my grandchildren.
Sometimes I tell them stories about the family.
Other times I tell them what I am learning and seeing in the world.
They’re very young, so I haven’t the heart to tell them in these books all that I am seeing. I’m writing that elsewhere, for when they are older.
For now I am trying to share the good and the beautiful and do speak truth in love, hoping that it will make a difference for them as they do the hard work of loving their neighbors as themselves. All their neighbors.
I often think of Gary Snyder’s poem, “For the Children.”
I share that one with my students pretty often, especially when we are spending a week trekking through the rainforest or across the tundra.
Those last words keep ringing in my ears:
“Stay together / Learn the flowers / Go light.”
These are things we all need, I think.
So I am sharing the little I have, and hoping that it will grow.
