Wage peace with your breath.
Breathe in firemen and rubble; breathe out whole buildings and flocks of red wing blackbirds.
Breathe in terrorists and breathe out sleeping children and freshly mown fields.
Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.
Breathe in the fallen and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.
Wage peace with your listening: hearing sirens, pray loud.
Remember your tools: flower seeds, clothespins, clean rivers.
Make soup. Play music; learn the word for thank you in three languages.
Learn to knit, and make a hat.
Think of chaos as dancing raspberries; imagine grief as the out breath of beauty or the gesture of fish.
Swim for the other side.
Wage peace.
Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious.
Have a cup of tea and rejoice. Act as if armistice has already arrived. Don't wait another minute.
by Mary Oliver
