Earth Etude for Elul 11 - It’s Done, It’s Not Done

by Judith Black                        

Our beautiful planet will survive and rehabilitate itself.
We will not.
Not the animals, not the insects, not the glaciers, not the poles.

Seeing one’s own extinction
Standing on that precipice
We still have a choice to make

Will I sink into the couch
Despair invading every pore
Weeping for the duration

Will I fight like hell
Pushing legislators and industry
Creating clean, healthy, just alternatives

Will I tend my garden
Caring and nurturing what remains
Sharing my carrots

Will I burrow into my soul
re-connecting with the spirit of love
turn into and radiate G-d’s love
​
Maybe it’s not done.
There are still choices
How will I continue to act out the divine until I can act no more?

Winner of the Oracle: Circle of Excellence, storytelling’s most coveted award, Judith’s been featured at The Montreal Comedy Festival, The National Storytelling Festival, The Smithsonian Institution, Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the National Art Museum in Cape Town, and NPR. She’s performed at over 10 CAJE conferences and explored B’nai Mitzvah, familial function and dysfunction, parenting, aging and end-of life, and in this past decade has moved her skills educate and activate around our climate crisis. She , most recently, is the winner of the National Storytelling Network 2022, Earth Up Conference slam. For more information about Judith’s work:  www.storiesalive.com   [email protected]