What Then Can We Do?

A poem by Wendell Berry to sit with when our hearts break for the world, for each other. My faith was formed in the crucible of a church that had posters on the walls declaring, "God is Love." Although I later learned from many traditions, my spirituality remains rooted in a faith that holds my feet to the fire of loving even when it is hard, even with those I may think of as "enemies." Wendell reminds me of what I knew and declared as a teenager looking at those posters- Love is a verb. Let it be what prompts and guides our action. ~Oriah

To my granddaughters who visited the Holocaust
Museum on the day of the burial of Yitzhak Rabin

Now you know the worst
we humans have to know
about ourselves, and I am sorry,

for I know that you will be afraid.
To those of our bodies given
without pity to be burned, I know

there is no answer
but loving one another,
even our enemies, and this is hard.

But remember:
when a man of war becomes a man of peace,
he gives a light, divine

though it is also human.
When a man of peace is killed
by a man of war, he gives a light.

You do not have to walk in darkness.
If you will have the courage for love,
you may walk in light. It will be

the light of those who have suffered
for peace. It will be
your light.

~ Wendell Berry ~

Another wonderful photo from Karen Davis at Open Door Dreaming

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