Web of Life #poetry #earthweal

I want my children to live
in a world where there’s a future to grow into
I took the decision to have children in good faith
considering the implications: 
the world does not need more people,
it needs more people prepared to make a difference 
I try to educate them
but by the time they’re grown, eco-warrior
might not be a lifestyle choice, but the default
modus vivendum, true meaning, ‘survivor.’

To extend the web of life is a gift and a blessing 
I’d almost do it again, even in these years
but would it be a cruelty, to be born in such uncertain times?
‘Fear to bring children into this world’* may be
the worst fear, but it figures:
go ask the children of the Monarch Butterfly
upon whose fragile wings extinction quivers.

*from Bob Dylan, ‘Masters of War.’ Everything else © 2022 experimentsinfiction.com. All Rights Reserved.

Written for earthweal

This week, Sherry hosts, and asks us to:

Contemplate the web of life and see where it takes you. It might be the grand design. It might be the most miniscule yet important creature. Write about it, small or big. Let’s appreciate nature’s wonders, her intricate design,  so we can better assist Mother Earth on her healing journey, which is also ours.

44 thoughts on “Web of Life #poetry #earthweal

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  1. To have or raise a child, to plant seeds, is to hope. It will be a sad day if we lose the ability to believe in and work for a future at all. (K)

  2. Your poem addresses the hard questions, Ingrid. The future of our young ones is frightening. But when I see how gifted and brilliant the souls being born are, I have to hope they may do what we have been unable to do. Your two closing lines really got to me.

  3. Ingrid, I have three children, but no grandchildren. I often think about the world my great nieces and nephews will be inheriting. As you say, they are bright and motivated and seem up to the challenges they face. <3

  4. Although one might think the world is overpopulated one could think we still need doctors and other helpful humans and people that will solve problems and come up with ways to save this mortal coil. They’ll just have to get used to not seeing birds and trees 😁 Good awareness post!

  5. a beautiful and poignant poem Ingrid! I said to my daughter maybe she should think about whether or not to have kids in this world but she said “Yes, mom life delivers crazy and scary times but we deliver solutions and life is worth it”. I suppose it depends on what side of the tracks your sitting in. I guess I will be a grandmother … 💖😂😘

  6. I feel the pain in your words. It hurts my heart as well. Yet we are not alone if our fight to tend to the earth and its creatures. I only have one voice but I will use it.

  7. Oh, the beautiful Monarchs. Their decreasing numbers breaks my heart. Just like the butterfly effect, small decisions made individually, can result in large change globally. 🦋

  8. It is hard to contemplate the future for the children growing to adulthood now. I hope we are able to turn things around so that they grow up to be strong and resilient in a changing, but not utterly hopeless, world.

  9. Resonates. Fear of our uncertain times indeed. The prospects are dire, just as for the Monarch butterflies. But perhaps we can take a lesson from them: The extinction would be exacerbated and final if they denied themselves the function to recreate… in their short life span they procreate and turn the cards to try to make a difference. They live a life of purpose 👏

  10. This is a beautiful message!

    My favorite lines:
    ‘the world does not need more people,
    it needs more people prepared to make a difference’

    and Bob Dylan…one of my absolute favorites!
    Thank you for sharing.

  11. This echoes and resonates profoundly for me, Ingrid. That song is a potent one from my adolescence, when we marched for a peace that forever eluded us, and my heart is torn for those who are children now in this infernal endless struggle. Yet those who are fighters for the good must pass it on somehow, or all the light will go out. An excellent poem, and far more than just words.

  12. I’ve struck up a correspondence with several guys I went to college with 45 years ago, and it’s evident that how one is raised makes all the difference on a life’s course. If the greatest indulgence is mothering then the most important responsibility is mothering well. (Daddies, take note too.)

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