From Everyone To Ourselves

From Everyone to Ourselves

The chairs in my kitchen are really tall

so I climbed up on one the other day,

to get a better look at the whole world

I was like, "Whoa..."- it was crazy!

All these people, all the people

struggling in different directions

away from and against and sometimes even through

but so seldom toward

So, I took out a wide rubber-band,

 stretched it out,

and put it around the whole world, 

and on it I wrote these words:

I love you. I love all of you Each of you is worthy of everything you need and whatever you kindly want You all are necessary You shine with a light generated by every beautiful moment as seen only through your own heart and what's more, all the pain- and I know there's so much pain- but know that you were worth it Every thing you've lived through was worth you being here today You are perfectly who you're meant to be

and just as I was about to exclamate my point

the rubber-band slid and snapped off, went

hurdling into space somewhere, so

those words are still out there but

in the contraction they've become tiny lines

 that look like grass drawn by children

before they've been taught that the ground and sky are touching

when green is a line at the bottom of the page and

blue is a line at the top

But maybe the trick is, they know something we don't

because you can't reach the bottom branch of that tree,

not even on your tippy-toes 

and even if you could, even if you could 

climb all the way to the top and reach up

even if you could fly

even birds don't get to touch that blue

But I wonder

I wonder if the astronauts when they're taking off,

blasting off in those rockets

are they shaking around shitting their pants so much that

they don't even notice when they go through

 the top of the page?

And what if they're up there one day

looking down at us all 

through a tiny porthole

and they see a rubber-band float by

one might say, "Did that have writing on it?"

and another would answer, 

"I think it was just grass but-  I feel better."

Because it's scary to go off the page

to not have the blue and green

whether or not they're touching

holding you in

And maybe from way up there it's easier to see how much we really don't know

and that all we think we know is just that

what we think

Because as grown-ups, we know

the colors we see are only what light reflects

we see green because grass absorbs all the other colors

just to show us green.

So if green's not really green and

blue might not be blue and

if they touch or don't touch- really

all we can be sure of is that we

are way more than the facts

and what we absorb 

is different from how we're known

and it doesn't matter if you can climb that tree because

we're the same stuff-

the stars, that tree, you, me

And grown-ups have also learned that 

thoughts have mass

yep, mass

(even in space) 

This means that 

thoughts are things,

things that can go out and change

or not even change,

they can make this world

But we knew that a long time ago

back when they told us stories

and those stories were just words but

those words came from thoughts and

those words made pictures in our heads

pictures that were like whole new worlds

So, if I give you a story, know that it's real

and even though it's just words, I'm giving you a world:

Once upon a time, you were two cells.

That didn't last long. You're many more now.

And more than just cells, you're made up of

water and carbon and all the things that make stars shine.

You're every moment you've lived till now,

every promise, wish, and vow,

every silence, every cry,

every giggle, every sigh.

You're every smile you've ever shared

and everything for which you've cared

And you can know this now-

through your eyes and your ears straight into your bones that 

you  are a maker  of everything

however tired, however spent,

however much wind life has knocked out of you,

you're still here

and you're still creating this world,

and the blue and the green, they still hold you

and they do touch

like we all touch

like we can't help

being part of it all.

From Everyone To Ourselves