Every Stick

Why not

 Respect all living things

    And assume

     That everything you see around you

      Is 

      Living ?

What If

Every animal

Every bug

Every leaf

Every tree 

Every mountain

Every stream 

Every person

Every car

Every table

Every shirt

Every chair

Every rock

Is living

And 

What if

Everything had

The potential for

A 

Soul.

When I die,

   I’ll know that I didn’t just live,

        But that I respected everything that was alive.

There’s no need to fear the end, my friend,

          Not if we respect everything that lived 

How many things can we be grateful for today?

Can we be grateful for the headphones between our ears?

Or grateful for the chair we sit on?

Can we be grateful that our car started this morning?

Or grateful that our bed let us sleep on it again?

Can we be grateful for the stoplight?

And grateful for the dragonfly?

It’s all alive,

And with enough time,

And with enough care,

And enough respect,

It all might grow a soul.

I’m grateful for my phone,

And I am grateful for my bones.

I am grateful for my mind

And grateful for time.

I am grateful to be alive,

And I am grateful to share being alive with you.

This world spins madly on,

And us,

With it.

But to spit on this world,

The same world that has given you everything you’ve ever needed,

Would be spitting on yourself, as well as everyone else.

To hurt someone

    Is to hurt everyone,

      Including yourself.

CH 10/5/25