I am so deeply grateful for the many, many people I know who are sacrificing their time and energy to canvass and phonebank and be poll watchers and volunteer in so many ways for the sake of democracy, equality and the saving of the nation and life on earth.

I have given more of my all to this election than all the prior elections combined, but now in the final days my job is to serve as pastor to my community, so I am intentionally seeking the deepest spiritual place I can attain, meditating several times a day, and spending as much time in nature as I can tear away from my pastoral work.

Today what came to me was enormous gratitude for all you who are working so hard for this cause, and the strange thing was that I felt the gratitude was greater than just mine. I felt I had connected in me with the spirit that is in all the living things around me here, and I wanted to say thank you on behalf of all those creatures that have no vote, thank you to all my friends in swing states and working at home to make the world safe for all species.

So this poem and short nature video are for you. We are all with you. The force of nature, the will of the earth is with you. Please feel its power and joy in everything you do, and keep pushing until the polls close!

Chief Oren Lyons asked the United Nations
where was the four footed, where the eagle,
why do they not have their own delegations?
Excluding them cannot be right or legal
by nature’s law—the law that judges all
on how they treat all creatures and the earth.
Fifty years ago now he gave that call
and every day his words gain greater worth.
A bobcat crossed my field the other day
as I prepared my ballot for the mail.
Her grace and beauty took my breath away,
her powerful muscles, that mysterious tail.
It was my legal signature I wrote,
but hers the higher law, and hers my vote.

11/2/24