Sometimes I can become overwhelmed by how much help and healing is needed in the world today. The idea that we're like raindrops in a pond helps me keep being hopeful, moving forward. If we are raindrops, then as we land on the pond, we add our ripples, touching others and being touched in turn. And we also become part of the pond, joining with all the other raindrops.

Every action, big or small, that is done with an open, generous heart and an understanding of your connection to everything will bring the ripples you hope for. You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to do it all. Just try to be the best raindrop you can be. Our pond will be the better for it.

With every story I hear about elephants and rhinos butchered for their tusks and horns, sharks killed for their fins, dolphins slaughtered, animals in factory farms imprisoned in horrible conditions, and so many more examples of animal suffering and cruelty in the world, I feel angry, despairing, and complicit. I long for a world where humans understand that the planet is here for all of us and all beings are allowed to live as they were meant to. I have more work to do with my own choices, especially with my transportation and food choices, that are contributing to that suffering.

​I wrote this poem on my way to work a few years ago, when I was learning to notice and appreciate the parts of my life that I was grateful for. I would take the longer route, along a country road, to extend the trip just a few minutes more. I'd open the windows and the experience of smelling the fields, the flowers, and the farms would be heightened.

She kisses us with her breeze, shades our skin with her leaves. We quench our thirst from her flow, we feed and nourish from her as we grow. We breathe her breath, please hear her call. She gives us life, she gives us all.