Return to Innocence

There is a knowing, deep and old,

not written in books nor bought with gold.

A whisper in the wind, a song in the trees,

the quiet truth carried on the breeze.

It lives in the eyes of a child at play,

in hands that reach for earth and clay.

It sings in laughter, wild and free,

dancing with birds, with sky, with sea.

But the world is quick to take and mold,

to hush the young, to make them old.

To teach them that love has a line, a rule,

that kindness is weakness, and nature a tool.

They say, “This is just the way it’s been,”

as they build their walls, their steel, their sin.

They take the calf from his mother’s side,

and turn their hearts to stone inside.

But do they remember, once long ago,

before the world told them what to know?

Did they hear the cry, did they see the pain,

before they learned to look away?

A boy named Finn, a girl named June,

born with hearts like flames, not armor.

They heard the whispers, they saw the light,

they knew what was true, what felt right.

And when they stood in love so strong,

the world around them sang along.

The cows stayed free, the fields grew tall,

abundance came to one and all.

For the earth gives all we need to share,

without the burden of despair.

It asks for love, for peace, for grace,

not for suffering to take its place.

But we must listen, we must see,

we must remember who we’re meant to be.

Not enforcers of will, not keepers of chains,

but guardians of life, protectors of plains.

Not to shame, not to divide,

but to hold the door open wide.

To say, Look inside. Look and see.

Does this world reflect the truth in me?

And if it does not, then let us begin,

to return to the place we have always been.

Where kindness grows, where love can stay,

where the earth is honored in the old, wise way.

Not with force, not with blame,

not with anger, not with shame.

But with an open heart, an open hand,

and a love so strong, it heals the land.

Let the children lead, let them be free,

let them teach us what it means to be.

And in their light, we’ll start anew,

returning to the path we always knew.

Giselle Loveland