Cracks, colors, prayers.

Breathe out.

Baby sleeps lightly at my feet which are sore from an evening run through the humid and lush green streets of this land. The smell of cooking meat and burning plastic, diesel fume and lilac flower, laundry detergent and newly cut grass course through my nostrils as I move through the landscape, faster than usual, sensory information flooding my nervous system, lungs fully engaged, body relearning the rhythm of running for distance, for invigoration, for purification, for pleasure and for healing.

There is a magic that is coursing through these neighborhoods. Everywhere you look there are people. People from many different countries and cultures, with large multigenerational families, usually sitting on porches, the children playing basketball or soccer in the street, the smell of cooking food wafting from open doors, the landscape enlivened with the colors of bright oranges and greens, violets and maroon, browns and patterned blues found in the clothing of many of the people here. Old men with bent backs and braided beards watch over toddlers learning to ride bikes while….

The baby woke up.

The next morning, 5/4/2021…

I have given myself 11 minutes to write before I have to make breakfast and ready myself for the day’s work and the adventures and tasks which lay before me. Space seems to be opening up within the cracks of the crises and commitments to fall back into actualizing the expression and songs running through me.

Some prayers at this moment, as the grey morning fog hangs low around these homes and trees, thick with water, warm with spring….

I pray for the health of families living within thriving Favelas in Rio De Janeiro.

I pray for the health of the woodpeckers and the common occurrence of fat grubs found within fragrant and decaying trees.

I pray for the health of the Ash trees.

I pray for the health of the wetlands of Nigeria.

I pray for the safety of Forest Elephants within the jungles of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

I pray for the health and healing of Conor J. Casey’s brain and body.

I pray for the continued thriving of Leo Rose and the safety of my family.

I pray for collective awakening to the power we hold as human beings.

I pray for the lessening of the illusions of disempowerment and the degeneration of the wild and thriving human soul.

I pray for the health and wellbeing of our wild and thriving human souls.

I pray for fat babies and safe children throughout the world.

I pray for dignity and for peace.

I pray for sanity and for clarity.

I pray for values based societies and truth and honesty to be woven into the fabric of each law and creed in which we are to follow.

I pray for an end to all police and surveillance states worldwide.

I pray for the clear running waters of creeks within the French Alps to run forever wild and free.

I pray that the humans whose hands picked the green tea leaves of which I drink are healthy and happy and feel my gratitude from the other side of the world.

I pray for healthy soils in Nepal and abundant harvests of Coca and Maize throughout the lush valleys of Peru.

I pray for the healing of the Earth and the remembrance of our interdependence.

I pray for sovereignty and for power.

I pray for connectedness and recognized interdependence.

I pray for humility and for calm.

I pray for laughter and for tears.

I pray for Peace.

I pray for rain and health and holiness and small acts of invisible good.

I give thanks for the subtle realms of the small medicine plants growing in the cracks of our colonized minds.

I give thanks for the sun that is shining today through the morning fog.

I am grateful for dew covered burdock plants which line the sidewalks I walk down day after day.

I give thanks for the pigs and chickens and cows who’s death I contribute to directly as I exchange money for their bodies and consume their flesh.

I give thanks for the death embedded inextricably within all life.

I give thanks for love and for the warmth of friendship.

I give thanks for modern technological communication devices.

I give thanks for the medicine of plants and the healing of trusting in our bodies and in Nature.

I give thanks for you.

I give thanks for the three black walnut trees who cover portions of our small backyard. Their leaves are just now uncurling. This is a blessing and a gift.

I am grateful.