Posted on September 19, 2025 by Jenn Zatopek

RADICAL WELCOME

Everything is really beautiful in this world when one reflects: everything except what we think or do ourselves when we forget the higher aims of life and our own human dignity.
– Anton Chekov

If I were in charge, I’d care
lovingly for this weary body,
spent from endless heat
and stalled grief. I’d wrap up
all the other bodies, also dear–
starving families in Gaza,
voiceless animals,
radiant trans friends,
mothers without children,
tired ones who stumble in exhaustion,
the lost and forgotten among us.

We’d fly to the mountains near Crescent Lake
where the meadows are as bright as spearmint
and the soaring firs smell resinous and holy.
I’d plant us right there, with the Shasta daisies
near pristine waters underneath the blue vault of sky.
We’d rest together, held by Mother Earth
and recover in blessed quiet,
hearing only the dark-eyed juncos, warblers,
and robins sing gaily to each other.

What if our hurting world longs for rest as we do?

I think of Chekov’s lady with lapdog,
how good it is to feel a soft animal
pressed against our bodies in the stillness,
how animal and human we all are,
how tenderness is fire, blazes our hearts open,
so seeds of compassion, care, and kindness will bloom.

Image / Meadow at Crescent Lake, Olympic National Park, Washington