What a virtue, what a trait

Independence!

Encouraged, applauded

Even envied

To stand on your own feet

To make and pave your own way

To rely on not a single soul

What an accomplishment!

But wait a minute!

Do you even open your eyes

Unless the sun

Comes peeking at your window

Bringing you a new day

How would you even get to bathe

Had the clouds not emptied

Or the snow not melted

So the streams could run and reservoirs rise

How would you smell your morning coffee

Had the sub-equatorial lands

Not grown and reaped the beans

Ground and brewed in your Keurig 

What clothing would you don

Had the cotton not been picked

The yarns not been spun

Garments not been stitched

So in true essence

Are we really ‘independent’?

Or are we ‘interdependent’!

And if so, what have we understood?

Do we accept and realize

Our co-existence

Our co-dependency

Our inherent need for allegiance

With the natural world

The countries we have created

To our neighbors

To our own selves!

Taken for a ride

By the good old ego

We pride ourselves

With a claim to independence

Yet looking deeper

Within and around

We are part of a whole

Where even a breath

Is not under our control

The gift of all gifts

Sent magically into your being

Silently with no fanfare

It’s time to question

Time to ponder and reflect

What an incredible existence

Where everything is so magnanimous postured

That blinded we have become

To the interconnections

That’s serve to sustain

Our universal existence

Time to wake up

Not to just smell the roses

But care for the roses

And all else on this blue planet