What’s it take to have an open heart? And an open mind? What’s it take to keep them from the start?

What’s it take to listen, intently, then have no resentment if you disagree, have and act upon your empathy? What’s it take to see the truth, through the smoke, beyond the mayhem, the destruction and the disarray? What’s it take to hear the pleas of those deeply in need? Can we quiet the noise, calm the bombast, decipher the rhetoric and take a pause? Please, a pause! What’s it take to fully stop: - the killing - the shooting - the bombing - the bleeding - the insurgency - the butchery - the violence - the vengeance - all of it, once and for all? Someone, anyone, please, what's it take?
It sounds so easy, doesn't it, to just stop, stop, and hear the pain in the voice and experience of another. And yet, the closed mind seals the ears from hearing, the eyes from seeing, the heart from feeling. It is the responsibility of everyone who wants to see peace, to leave a world to our kids where they can safely sleep in their beds and sit at their desks, and breathe clean air, to smile and play and love, to listen without judgment, to act with compassion. Shall we start a revolution?
Agreed.
Our Only World
This blue green orb our only world
A world we sorely need to share
All the land and all the love
All the pain and sorrow
So we are gathered here
To come together as one
On this precious home
our only world
Squall clouds are rolling
Bitter winds are hailimg
Rash kings are warring
And sirens are wailing
On this blue green orb
our only world
Glaciers are melting
Countries are drying
Grain fields are roasting
And stomachs they are cryimg
On this precious home
our only world
If we don't do something
We will be left with nothing
Would it not be better
To do something?
On
This blue green orb our only world
A world we need to share
All the land and all the love
All the pain and sorrow
We are gathered here
To come together as one
On this precious home
our only world
Malcolm McKinney 2023