A Failure of Imagination

 I've been visiting along the coast of South Carolina for the past week.  The weather has been spectacular--cool and breezy.  The huge spring storms that wrecked havoc across the mid Atlantic states have only scoured the humidity from the air here and intensified the blue of the sky.  The marsh and coastal woodlands are full of songbirds and the first batch of fledglings are already starting to come to the feeders.  My sister's caged finches are trumpeting the hatching of the first two of their four eggs.  The babies are so tiny they can only be distinguished when they open their mouths or wiggle their little feet.  It is very moving to consider how something so small can survive, much less have a place,  in the fierceness of the world.

Wandering these lovely islands I kept thinking about how much beauty there is around us, yet threaded through it all is the reality in both the Real World and the world we have made, that sooner or later we are all held accountable: to ourselves, each other, and the earth.. The events of the last few days and months are evidence of the consequences for governments and individuals which have forgotten this truth. In times when the settling up is taking place, it becomes even  more important to remember that no one on either side is ever exempt. There is no room for joy in justice.

 On one barrier island shoreline last week I came across two couples quietly watching the waves in the late afternoon. Our later years are often a time when we turn our energies towards giving back; seeking to balance out our own fierceness by creating lives more full of beauty and love and gratitude. How that balance can be manifested is the great work for all of us, but as I considered what that means, I ran across these wonderful lines, and I was heartened. Perhaps, you will be too.  

 "In my dream the angel shrugged and said "if we fail this time, it will be a failure of imagination" and then  she placed the world gently in the palm of my hand."