tempestuous winds

 risk to believe in self

I look into their eyes

where I see both the frightened soul

and the spirit that will not be denied,

even in normal times,

the transition from child,

protected and secure as if in a cocoon,

to young adult, who breaks free

into the tempestuous winds called adolescence,

all of this enough to shake the self to its core,

to challenge sureness and scare hope into doubt,

these are not normal times, 

a scary pandemic and a scary election,

add more buffeting winds to assault the emerging selves,

I am both heartened and dismayed

as I watch our students work to persevere

toward the hope that beckons,

and away from the despair that pulls at them to fear,

to retreat into an inaction

that feels safer but also denies

the success that calls to them,

I hope for them to hold 

to who they have been

and who they can be

if they but risk to believe in themselves.

by Henry H. Walker

November 20, ‘20