In these final fading days,
we are still entangled
in the tattered threads
of the old year,
teetering on the brink while clinging
to our hopes and fears.
We take them with us
as we lurch into the future,
where we build our nests anew,
weaving old threads with new,
ready to sing our spring songs
and give hope to the young.
Kim M. Russell, 29th December 2019
My response to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads Wordy Friday with Wild Woman: Staying Strong in a World of Climate Crisis, also linked to earthweal open link weekend #50
For her last prompt at Toads, Sherry has shared positive words from ecologist and activist Joanna Macy, who has devoted her life to working for climate justice, and to awakening us to what is happening to the world around us.
Sherry would like us to contemplate these topics and write about staying strong in a distressing world and how to dig deep for hope in the face of collapsing ecosystems and accelerating extinctions.
writing in north norfolk 
A beautiful use of the prompt! Thank you.
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Thank you, Rosemary.
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Every word of this is so spot on, I would have to copy it all into this comment box to highlight how much I felt your lines.
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Thank you, Kerry.
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This flowed as gently and as elegantly as a bird song – beautiful
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Thank you, Jae.
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Wonderful, Kim. We can use all the hope we can muster. Hope you feel better soon.
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Thank you so much, Sherry. I’m waiting for results from a chest X-Ray at the moment and trying to cope with the side effects of steroids. My husband took me to see Little Women today, to take my mind off it. It was a wonderful film and didn’t the trick for a while.
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Love this so much, Kim. I am definitely tangled still in those old lines.
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Thank you, Marian.
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Nicely said, Kim. One thing sure is that our youth need hope. So many of them can’t find much to give them that hope.
..
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Thank you, Jim. Happy New Year!
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Yes, after a little rest in the winter, I’ll be ready to sing those spring songs too, weaving a little of those old notes I’ve loved from the past.
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Happy New Year, Rommy!
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“Entangled” is the perfect word for the nest we’re in and build anew — the old is what we have to build with, threaded with what’s to come. The human is entangled too in a vast ecosystem we barely understand; nothing we think or do is independent of it. Thanks for bringing this gem from the Pond to the Clearing!
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Thank you, Brendan!
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When you originally posted this in 2019 you could not possibly have imagined just how apt your words would sound same time the following year!
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Everything was hunky dory back then! I hope things look better soon.
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And we need that hope even more now than we did when you first wrote this! Wonderful! Here’s to a happier new year.
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I second that, Sherry!
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What a beautiful nest! We must keep adding new threads. (K)
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Indeed we must!
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