Instructions on Not Giving Up

excerpted from Ada Limon’s poem in her latest book entitled Startlement

. . . Patient, plodding, a green skin 

growing over whatever winter did to us, a return

to the strange idea of continuous living despite

the mess of us, the hurt, the empty. Fine then, 

I’ll take it, the tree seems to say , a new slick leaf

unfurling like a fist to an open palm. I’ll take it all.

A Modest Suggestion for Good

So tonight, men, and possibly a few women, are scheduled to bloody themselves in cages in front of a ravenous crowd and a cheering President celebrating on near sacred ground their carnal version of America. If that depresses you, keep in mind this whole year, and this presidency will occupy perhaps two paragraphs in the history of what counts one hundred years from now. This paragraph will be entitled “the Decline of a 21’st Century Democracy” and history will move on to what counted much more. Is your one precious spring of 2026 worth that one paragraph in a dismissive history? No! The Good Decision Project says decide to “take it all” this spring. Keep your resistance limber and healthy. Hear the birds and pinch the flower blossoms. Encourage the bees. That will be good for you and me.