Elders’ Prayer - Sashana Kane Proctor

[Lawrence Robinson]

Elders’ Prayer

May we turn loose our grief
   to the beauty of wild roadside radish bloom
Finding healing there
   so with new eyes
We go seeding compassion
   deep into broken lives. 

In the burned out hearts of redwood mothers
   may we accept rest and shelter 
    to lay down our wounds 
    as the sacred offerings they are
So we
   even as our bodies shrink
 Stand tall as redwoods
   wrinkled wombs pregnant with gratitude
To spread forgiveness.

May we be the ones 
   who lay our anger on fires of injustice
   and stay the terror ‘til embers glow
So we carry love in our hearts  
   to those cold with the 
   ravages of living.  

May we find our way through 
what we can no longer do
To what we can
   that soothes
   that feeds and holds
Without sacrificing 
   our own worn selves.

May we finally know
   we are enough
   that what gifts seem small 
                                                 matter.
May we 
   see those unseen
   be the listeners to those unheard
   the storytellers 
      who say what matters
       so children sit rapt
   laugh uproariously 
   hold our aging beloveds
      in the dark of night.

Let us be the ones
   who show the young
   how to let go
   to leave this life
Knowing we know naught
   about our path
Still full of gratefulness
    for the life we have had. 
                                                                                                                         
	- Sashana Kane Proctor