The naked branches reach toward the firey sky, each evening painting a different picture, as the strokes of the mystical brushes never make the same pass twice. Although a different vision presents itself each and every night, the feelings every sunset evokes stem from the same heart. A hopeful one.
Each sunset brings with it feelings of optimism. Sunsets put beauty at the end of each day to remind us that no matter how hard, how dark, how horribly life-changing that day might have been, it ends with something beautiful. Something that shows us that everything is temporary. Any beauty that was stripped from today, is possible tomorrow.
Each sunrise allows us to start each day with something beautiful. We can choose to ignore it, and begin the day with every single, conceivable challenge our only focus. We can also choose to let it in. Embracing its message that each and every day can begin with hope, with beauty, with kisses of colourful light, if we just let it.
Every day presents opportunity. Big, small, private, public, life-changing, mind-changing, soul-changing. Sometimes, there are moments only discovered through a rearview mirror and the benefit of a 20/20 hindsight lens.
These simple things can get lost in the hate-filled, fear-laced pages of racist tripe all-too-often spewed on conspiracy theorist pages that sift through the algorithms of our newsfeeds. The simple beauties become overshadowed, overtaken by the noise.
History has proven that each generation has had its own demons to deal with. Its own generational darknesses to overcome. And, at least, for the most part, it happens. We overcome. We get past. We muddle through. Or, at the very least, progress is made.
Someday, if we are very lucky, and don't screw everything up, we will live, grow and thrive where we don't actively try to kill the very planet we inhabit. Someday, if we are very lucky, and don't screw everything up, we will live, grow and thrive where very human, no matter the colour of our skin, no matter who we love, or how we see ourselves, we will be able to entertain and chase dreams bigger than our current, lopsided playing field will allow.
Someday, future generations, arguing with their own demons, will look to history, look to us, for guidance.
Our only responsibility, as I see it, is to make sure we give them something useful from which to draw. Something that will show decent, humane paths to take when it looks like there are none. Something that proves kindness and prosperity can not only coexist, but feed each other.
We, are who they will look to for precedence. Now, is when they will look to for guidance. What we do, and how we do it matters.
When we normalize hate. When we pretend racism is a thing of the past. When we try to prohibit children from seeing themselves represented in books, movies, or tv, we leave scars. They are scars of exclusion. Trying to make it seem like entire swaths of humanity don't exist. Trying to pretend they never did.
What we do, and how we do it matters.
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May we make today a history our children's children can look to.
May we create a world where the safety of the many, trumps the ambitions of the few.
May we create a world where hate is denied oxygen, where vigilantes aren't confused for heroes.
May those who create victimhood out of accountability, find truth, find conscience and follow where it goes.
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