It is now almost a week since the tragedy in Israel. And for almost a week the world has felt so heavy and I have so much to say and yet it feels like I am not qualified to say a damn thing, like I cannot possibly know how people are feeling.
So I stay silent, I watch, I listen and I learn…
Life has carried on for most of us, and we remain unaffected and yet we ARE affected because we are human. We don’t need to be Jewish or Muslim or live in Israel or Palestine, to feel deeply the intense loss and the enormity of what is going on.
The images shown of the bloodshed of innocents, someones mother, father, brother, son or daughter.
We don’t need to be anything to feel the hurt and fear and anger that is raging through the world.
Look, I don’t wish this to become political, I will not share my true feelings or fears, this is a place of light in times of dark, but I cannot let another day go by without at least leaning into my feelings and sharing my heart and sending my love to all who are affected.
I see in the eyes of my friends only too well the fear they feel… that in 2023 we are STILL here in this position of utter hatred.
And as a mother, I fear the world for my kids, that the world as we know it is changing again, in ways we are fearful of - and all we can do is sit and wait and watch. Feeling helpless, useless and scared.
So - I will leave it here.. sending you my love and I will share a poem of love in the hope that someday, in someway we can all find love in all people.
I think the words of this poem can resonate in so many ways. So read into it what you will. It is one of my favorites.
Love is love… for your partner and for your fellow man. Love is how we heal. Because without love, what do we have…?
So read this from the view of two humans - finding love after so much loss.
Poem by: Clementine von Radics - “Mouthful of Forevers”
I am not the first person you loved.
You are not the first person I looked at with a mouthful of forevers.
We have both known loss like the sharp edges of a knife.
We have both lived with lips more scar tissue than skin.
Our love came unannounced in the middle of the night.
Our love came when we’d given up on asking love to come.
I think that has to be part of its miracle.
This is how we heal.
I will kiss you like forgiveness.
You will hold me like I’m hope.
Our arms will bandage and we will press promises between us like flowers in a book.
I will write sonnets to the salt of sweat on your skin.
I will write novels to the scar of your nose.
I will write a dictionary of all the words I have used trying to describe the way it feels to have finally, finally found you.
And I will not be afraid of your scars.
I know sometimes it’s still hard to let me see you in all your cracked perfection, but please know:
whether it’s the days you burn more brilliant than the sun or the nights you collapse into my lap your body broken into a thousand questions, you are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
I will love you when you are a still day.
I will love you when you are a hurricane.
Poem copyright Clementine von Radics
Music copyright Pond 5 licensed to Albers Actor Studios LLC