The Long View

When I feel despair about

The way things are

Or hopeless about

What is to come.

When I feel lost,

No longer sure of the paths

I am to follow.

When I have worn myself out

In anger or in worry.

I catch a glimpse

Of the blip of time

In which I live.

A fungus on a stump.

A stream of water carving a path through a boulder.

Prophets preaching in the wilderness

Or bearing witness on the street corner.

Let me not give up.

But, instead, hold on to

The long view.

Believing that the arc of history

Moves towards love,

Towards justice,

Towards life.

Show me my part

In this long journey.