The wind blows.  Floods and rising waters continue their devastating invasion.  Smoke from nearby fires is frighteningly strong.  Lungs ache.  Eyes burn.  Breathing is compromised.  Evacuations continue.  Families fear losing their homes, livestock, pets, livelihoods, lives.  Those who survived the fires now face homelessness, poverty, an uncertain future.
Painful tears.

The wind howls.  People frantically trying to get into an airport and on a plane to safety.  People huddle together, stranded on the tarmac in the hopes that they will be able to get on a plane that will rescue them from death, rape, torture.
Painful tears.

The wind resurfaces. New strains of the pandemic virus erupt, overloading hospitals, exhausting front line workers, terrifying parents of children under the age of twelve unable to be vaccinated, causing polarization in families where some decide to be vaccinated and others decide the pandemic is a hoax.
Painful tears.

The wind changes direction.  Young men and women brought to their new country as babies or children face deportation.  Infants, toddlers, children, youth, separated from their parents continue to be incarcerated, uncared for, unprotected, terrified.
Painful tears.

The wind that has blown for decades continues to blow in new ways as unmarked graves of children in residential schools are found – as memories of childhood experiences of abuse in residential schools bubble to the surface with the discovery of the graves – as the reality of murdered and missing indigenous women continues to sink in.
Painful tears.

The wind still blows.  People are standing up, speaking out, making their opposition known, not only in peaceful ways, but in not-so-peaceful ways. Nuclear threats beg the ‘is war on the horizon?’ question. Ordinary citizens ask why the law seems to serve and protect the most powerful, but not the vulnerable, not the land, not the environment.
Painful tears.

The wind of ill-health continues to disrupt lives.  Addiction, chronic illness, mental illness, overdoses, accidents, loneliness, aging, grief, and increase rents that are impossible to meet forcing businesses to close, people out of their homes and on to the streets.  Lives, finances, health and relationships are compromised.
Painful tears.

Painful tears continue to fall from eyes, covering faces and continue to fall from hearts, covering souls as the sacrifice of those who died, so there might be life and freedom to vote and express opinions, often seems lost in rhetoric and anger.
Painful tears.

Tears. Far too many painful tears at this time of fires and floods, rape and torture, hurricanes and starvation, earthquakes and tornadoes, political lies and abuse of power.

May painful tears be diminished by naming the fears (not letting them fester, or stifle conversation) about global warming/climate change, the pandemic, bullying, abuse, political decisions … and by taking action.

Let painful tears flow
and motivate
to let in
Light.

Photo & Text © June Maffin