WHAT IFS

 

As the new year approaches it feels like our country…our world

is teetering on the edge of a cliff

as we wonder what has happened to acceptance, to compassion,

to generosity and love…we are confronted with a lot of what ifs.

What if instead of fearing those we see as different…

we got to know them…personally?

We would find we have much in common….and they were never our enemy.

What if in our hearts we understand we are all branches of the same family tree?

then our arms would open willingly in acceptance…despite the differences we see?

What if we sat and walked and talked together…

shared our joy divided our sorrow and tears?

We would find when we truly listened to one another…there is nothing we need fear.

If understanding removed our fear there would be no-one to hate 

and nothing to hate for

no prejudice, no need for bullets, no more bombs or war.

What if we could see everyone as beautiful…as our sister and our brother?

What if we finally understood how we complement each other..

What if we stopped looking at the differences…in our sex, who we love…

in the color of our skin? 

Animosity, our prejudice and our hatred would stop

and love and compassion would begin.

What if we realized the way we’ve look at each other all these years

has been petty, narrow-minded and small

And what if we begin to understand our wonderful variety and diversity…

is what makes us beautiful after all.

Which leads to the bigger question:

What if we do nothing?  What if we don’t change?

What if we let our hatred eventually push us over that cliff…

In the moments we are falling to our doom…

It will be too late to wonder how this happened

to late then…to ask ourselves what if.