Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Veteran's Day

And I say thank you for fighting for me. Thank you. Because we all want the same thing. We all want peace.

And though we may not agree on how, we agree.

So thank you, all you service men and women for putting your life on the line for this country that we all believe in, for the future. Thank you for your work that allows me to have my opinion and to believe what I want--because you fight for those rights.

I honor you today--may we all wage peace together.

***

"Wage Peace" by Judyth Hill

Wage peace with your breath.
Breathe in firemen and rubble,
breathe out whole buildings
and flocks of redwing blackbirds.

Breathe in terrorists and breathe out sleeping children
and freshly mown fields.
Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.
Breathe in the fallen
and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.

Wage peace with your listening:
hearing sirens, pray loud.
Remember your tools:
flower seeds, clothes pins, clean rivers.

Make soup.
Play music, learn the word for thank you in three languages.
Learn to knit, and make a hat.
Think of chaos as dancing raspberries,
imagine grief as the outbreath of beauty
or the gesture of fish.
Swim for the other side.
Wage peace.

Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious.
have a cup of tea and rejoice.
Act as if armistice has already arrived.
Celebrate today.

Shannah

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