by Annabelle Acton-Bond

‘Day by day the manna fell’
I want to live this story well
It’s time to step by step be free
Trust friends, loving community

I can’t know past the turn in this path
Gravelly, moss-covered, leaf-strewn aftermath
This moment only shows me now
But liberation slowly dawns somehow

The pitter-patter of my heart
Is gently nudging me to start
What I don’t fully understand, can’t see,
Articulate beyond familiarity

Yet familiar in a deep, slow way
Embodying all shapes of grey
And rainbow-hued anatomy
In full, ecstatic symphony

Flow through me like I’m wildfire
Calm and still but full desire
Complex, impossible to explain
This bittersweet gratitude‐ and pain

I want to honor every drop
Of living, human, feeling‐ life-crop
Abundance more than scarcity
Despite the challenge, this is me

So stir that pot, let bubbles pop,
Ideas percolate, don’t stop
For I’m right here imperfectly
Perfect place and presence, see?

Lift up the veil, no fright or fail
Beyond my eyes this winsome gale
Is storming through to fracture me
Gazillion pieces, yet positively

I’m new, I’m new, a thousand years old
Peek through, peek through, the wind and the cold
The drafts lifting up, I gaze uncertainly
Through cracks in a wall crumbling certainly

No doubt the journey’s jaggedy,
Raggedy, up, down, zig-zaggedy
It loops and halts, weaving in and back out
But this web’s getting stronger and stronger, no doubt 

If I want to be part of the tide, of the change
Then I have to give in to the new and the strange
And though strange it may seem to be utterly new
I find it was always the way, always true

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Annabelle Acton-Bond wrote this piece after Interhelp’s November gathering in Deerfield MA, having joined the Earth Leadership Cohort last year. A recent transplant from London, her main focus has been climate justice organizing. She is currently exploring how to integrate dismantling systems of power, privilege and oppression with her facilitation and creativity.