April 2026 – Jane Tawel

Hope in the World, Just Not Yet at Home

by Jane Tawel

In the past couple days there is evidence of several amazing world events and leaders that give me hope — they just aren’t in America sadly. (Let’s hope that there is a “yet” to that first sentence.) Hungary — Wow! Canada and Prime Minister Mark Carney — Wow. Wow. Pope Leo — WOW! WOW! WOW! These three examples alone of moral integrity and truth spoken with love are lights in a dark time. This is unlike the haters and foolish, dark-minded people currently in our nation’s administration, congress, and in the ranks of their supporters, (either openly or behind the scenes), who are running our nation into the ground. They instead are gleefully filling their coffers or excusing those who are using them for their own enrichment while offending everyone, creating fallacious conflicts that kill innocent people, and ruining not just America’s and the world’s economy, but creating decades of dire problems for our children and our planet. This is overwhelming enough but add to that the continuous drip, drip, drip of blaspheming or changing beyond all recognition what some of these people say they believe as a world view, Christianity, and that they even say they want to be our national “religion” (something our nation considered a dangerous oxymoron) but a belief system if when looked at honestly, stands against everything that we see coming to horrible fruition today; a Faith which is truly and in actuality the moral imperative good people of all religions or just all good humans are called to follow. We have slid down the slippery slope the oligarchs and capitalism have long been slipping on.

But despite what we are hearing: Exceptionalism isn’t individualism, it is holding oneself to an exceptional standard; leading without morality isn’t leadership, its narcissm; and empathy is not a weakness but the best way to understand the onus of the greatest power the universe knows — Love. I know there are enough people in America who remember what we are called to be at our best — caring, sharing, accepting, just, truthful, and free. There is always light, no matter how dark it may seem, if we look hard enough. Keep looking ahead; keep looking around you; keep looking for the helpers. And keep hoping. Be the Light you are called to today.

Some Days I Just Don’t, But I Do

By Jane Tawel

April 11, 2026

I guess it’s not fair

to say I don’t care

but somedays there are times

when I don’t.

Don’t wanna’ keep fighting

Don’t wanna’ keep hoping

Don’t want more nail-biting

Or dreaming or moping.

I’m barely now coping

So, forgive me for writing

this doggerel dressed up like a poem.

I may be quite small —

just a gnat, or a flea

on the tail of the dog-eating-dog lives we lead.

But I think even small things should matter —

Don’t you?

I think children and tadpoles

And flowers and bees,

And fire-flies and moon-beams

And seashells and seeds —

All matter should matter — and all that’s beyond —

All life’s matter should matter to me.

There are some times I should

just breathe deeply, just be.

But at junctures of fear, doubt, or faith,

there’s a Voice that will whisper,

there’s a choice to be made:

Should I speak up with courage?

Should I fight, quit, or flee?

So, I live in the question —

in this Time, in this Place,

Will I be or not be

one who makes a small difference?

Will I trust even small acts of love

will deliver us?

Will I choose to be kind?

Will I show love and grace?

Will I seek truth and justice?

Will I leave a wee trace?

Will I follow the way

of the sages now past

and of Good people I know

who stand tall and speak out?

No — there is no foreseeing

what the future will hold;

But I choose to stoke embers

of hope in my soul

for the Life that is Freeing

for the Life that’s eternal

for the Earth, our maternal, dear home;

for humanity’s spark

for Light conquering the dark,

for Divinity’s Known and Unknown.

Somedays I think maybe

I can’t make a difference.

Somedays I think maybe

There isn’t much hope.

But I’ll do the good do’s,

What I can — just my part —

And I won’t do the don’t’s and the do-nots.

And when fears try to stop me,

And doubt quells my heart,

And I struggle with why, how, or whether —

Then I’ll look for a friend

And I’ll look for a hand

and I’ll whisper: “let’s do it together”.

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