Plans to protect air and water, wilderness and wildlife are in fact plans to protect [us].
– Stewart Udall
Tender Spots
This is how you love a hurting world,
by finding the tender spots, like that
soft patch by the edge of the woods
where magenta asters have bloomed,
their bright color burning through the dusk
as leaves tumble down around them.
Or listening to a friend when she says
she feels like a failure, answering
Me too, before reminding her that failure
is also fertilizer, is just information.
You love a hurting world by touching
the tender spots hidden in you,
by taking your loud fury, your desire
to apologize on behalf of all men,
down to the pond, where lit ripples catch
every angry thought, every healing wish,
and hold them with you, with you.
– James Crews