I have stood with the Water Protectors
    at Standing Rock as tears flowed
    from my eyes,
    watching the spray of freezing water
    that drenched the innocent ones.
I have grieved with the teacher in war-torn Aleppo
    who stayed behind to teach the children,
    willing to be the only teacher,
    willingly risking his life to do so,
and I have marched with the marchers
    holding banners to free Tibet,
    grieving for their land to which they
    could not return, yet insisting
    with their every step that return was essential.
I have grieved at the oppression of the
    Palestinians and the Sudanese,
    and the millions who do not live in safety
    and whose children do not live in safety,
and in the midst of grief I have prayed
    to be able to help end oppression,
    to be able to change the roots of oppression
    which is always and everywhere
    the loss of heart and the feeling for heart
    which separates one from another
    and locks love away in a prison where
    it can no longer be felt as real.
I am these children of the One
who suffer and are oppressed,
    and I grieve for them and walk with them
    and pray that my prayers will lift up the world,
    and that my love will instill love in those
    who have left it behind,
and that the Living Presence of the One
that holds all may come forth to serve
the purposes of love, as it is written,
    that oppression may be no more.