I Am Only One

Cynthia Silva Parker

Senior Associate

These days, it’s hard not to drift into apocolyptic thinking. With the fires, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, mud slides, ongoing flirtation with nuclear war, rising visibility of virulent white supremacy, ending of DACA, daily dismantling of federal level protections of civil rights and the environment, and the list goes on, it’s easy to despair. I keep saying to myself and my colleagues that a strong spiritual core is the only thing that keeps me moving! That, and the reality that it’s actually possible to make some progress within my sphere of control.

I’m reminded of two poems …

I am only one

But still I am one.

I cannot do everything

But still I can do something.

And because I cannot do everything

I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.

— Edward Everett Hale (1822-1909) Unitarian Universalist minister

And this word of caution from A Ritual to Read to One Another by William Stafford

… For it is important that awake people be awake,

or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep; 

the signals we give — yes or no, or maybe —

should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.

In spite of the times, I hope you are looking for and encouraged by the acts of resistance, reform, recreating and reimagining that are all around us. There is much we can do to advance justice and sustainability, even in these trying times. Think carefully. Love fully. Work together. Practice community care. While each of us is only one, together, we are the ones we’ve been waiting for.