Desert

The world is like a desert
the searing heat of day
the numbing cold of night

A desert runs dry
As dry as my parched lips when I forget to drink because I let myself get sucked into the horrors of the world

The world is like a desert
Barren, dry and searing hot
Stark and beautiful under starry sky

The world may be like a desert
But the news we write about it
portrays it as a field of lava
More Mordor than sahara,
Saurons eye of evil hanging over it
Nothing lives but the monsters,
evil in every nook and every cranny,
Dead or dying

But the world is like a desert
A brutal place to eke out an existence,
But then, nothing is more beautiful than desert flowers blooming
The against-all-odds lushness of the oasis
Like the world around us, the desert teems with life (and love)

The world is like a desert
And to the desert I have looked to find a way to cope

Every day, the world serves up stories of neglect,
Every day I read the news, more wars are creating more refugees,
More people are using more fossil fuels to create more energy
Every day, it sometimes seems, is a step closer to the end of civilization and the human race
Every day, I have a choice to make,
On how I don’t succumb to desperation

I can be a flower or I can be a tree

Like a flower in a drought sometimes i look towards myself
I pick every drop of morning dew from my petals to survive
Every smile from those I love,
Every day I'm not in pain
I tighten the circle of my interest
I look into her eyes, I seek her love.
I embrace the offspring of my heart
I feel their love
Like a flower in a drought I ignore the desert that surrounds me
Never deal with all the bullshit
Never look beyond my petals.
For they are my armour

BUT on the good days
I can be like a tree when the rains don’t come
I can use all my energy to push out the reach of my roots
I can search out every drop of water in the desert
Throw all I’ve got into widening my net
I expand the circle of my interest
Searching out the smiles, the love, the goodness that exists
I care deeper about more things,
Channeling my inner Hans Rosling
I remember that things are in fact getting better every day
That more people in more places have better chances of better lives
That child mortality is down while educational outcomes are up
That we live longer, healthier and happier lives than at any time before
That of all the times in history to live, there isn’t a better one than now
Those are the good days

I really want to be that tree.
I want to care
I want to dare
I want to open my heart to the world,
Absorb the good, the bad and the ugly,
Dwell on the good,
hope my love can change the bad,
Ignore the ugly. Always ignore the ugly

I prefer the tree to the flower,
but there are days when all I can manage is to be a desert lily
petals folded in upon themselves
a protective wrap against the horrors of the world
And that’s OK.
Because that desert lily is beautiful in it’s own way

Thank you