The word for today is ZEST
for how else to awaken our best?
How else to show up and grow up
and step into Truth
freed from excuse and no matter
the abuse that might otherwise
contain us although
who would blame us?

It’s scary out there
in the rarified air
that the brave among us
breathe and share through
their story-songs…their glory-songs
that lift us and gift us
with the courage and conviction
to live into our own mission.

These are the life-songs that challenge us
and imbalance us by asking us
to stretch far and wide
beyond both complacency and pride
reaching across false divides
behind which it would be easier to hide.

For how else to LIVE our legacy
rather than just worry about leaving one?
How else to sing out loud and clear
in defense of all that we each hold dear?
How else to speak Truth to power
at every opportunity and hour
rather than fight or take flight
or just freeze or appease or
seek to please?

How to stay the course?
With LOVE not force!
With RIGHT not might!
With GRACE and the God-given
gifts we came to claim
and to dare to share.

*This poem was written on MLK Day 1/16/2023 as I thought about what feistiness and fierce advocacy are all about.

from the heart, mind, and pen of Minx