COULD WE BE HAPPY?
Vicki Robin – October 17, 1999
And we will all be noisy
We will gather in the streets talking about recipes and politics and philosophy and love
We will show each other our bruises with the innocence of children.
Convinced of our safety, we will wear brightness and smile as though anyone could be a friend.
The malls will be commons of kindness
With shops for healing broken hearts and stands for conversation breaks.
The poor won’t be so poor and will take the rich to lunch.
No one will feel left out.
The natural world will hum with life giving itself to life for the sake of life –
Just like in the old days.
Every species will have a human who, like an older brother,
Helps it cross the divide between death and deliverance.
We will hear the sounds of animals and trees
And have the distinct impression that we understand.
We will see paw prints and want to follow.
We will walk in silence, worshipping.
Oh we will worship shamelessly everywhere.
As we get the morning paper we will kiss the ground and greet the sun.
We will chant morning prayers in a thousand tongues right there on our door stoops.
We will say rosaries and make prayer ties on the bus in the morning.
And do business as if we will live a thousand life times with the outcomes of our actions.
We will admit that we are hopelessly in love with the divine Divine.
Yes, we will be showered with blessings and drip with wet gratitude.
We will all have enough. We will all have hope, even the poor poor who didn’t choose to be poor.
Our imaginations will be on fire with “what if”,
As though no one had told us to forget it and fail gracefully.
No life will be capped with despair. No child unloved and crying naked and dirty.
Even the rich will want to live in such a world,
Will want to come into the street and sing and drink beer.
And the guards and the prisoners will tell stories about childhood until they become brothers.
And that tight place in our chests where our hearts are in hiding will soften and melt.
And we will finally be free.