Posted on November 5, 2025 by Jenn Zatopek

THE DELIGHT OF DIFFERENCE

Look at our horse herb growing,
rising up to drink autumn rains,

how it soaks into thirsty clay soil
holding pin oak roots threading 

dark and deep in the front yard,
how her leaves will soon shock 

the world with fiery red glows
before falling beautifully in death.

I wonder–
Is this friendship, 

this delighting in differences,
the touch of sacred waters to earth, 

the transformation that comes from
welcoming the other into ourselves? 

How life longs to be with life,
that this is the hope of each other, 

this opening to what scares us,
to what is vulnerable and new.

Image / Sunset at Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Santa Fe, New Mexico