Quiet Isn’t Always Peace…

Deep thought. Articulate she was as she shared her soul searching work to a global audience captivated by her eloquence during the historic inauguration As a writer and lover of words like she is, how could I resist the opportunity to share the work of a Quiet Storm, Amanda Gorman.

The Hill We Climb
by Amanda Gorman, USA Youth Poet Laureate

When day comes, we ask ourselves where can we find light in this never-ending shade?

The loss we carry, a sea we must wade.
We’ve braved the belly of the beast.
We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace, and the norms and notions of what “just” is isn’t always justice.

And yet, the dawn is ours before we knew it.
Somehow we do it.
Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken,
but simply unfinished.

We, the successors of a country and a time where a skinny Black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president, only to find herself reciting for one.

‘This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge’: Joe Biden calls for unity in first speech as president – live

And yes, we are far from polished, far from pristine, but that doesn’t mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect.
We are striving to forge our union with purpose.

To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters, and conditions of man.

And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us, but what stands before us.

We close the divide because we know, to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside.

We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another.
We seek harm to none and harmony for all.
Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true:
That even as we grieved, we grew.
That even as we hurt, we hoped.
That even as we tired, we tried.
That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious.
Not because we will never again know defeat, but because we will never again sow division.