A collective poem from The Sandbox Revolution: Raising Kids for a Just World.

For each child that’s born
Earth waits with her gift and wounds;
The creatures smile and weep;
The waters and winds rush and grow still.

A monarch unfolds its wings,
A beak breaks through its shell,
A tadpole finds legs,
And a million larva take flight.

For each child that’s born,
The Balance shifts to make room
and matter, time and light bend around
The squalling cries.

For each child that’s born,
An ancestor lives.
May this child ancestor be welcomed
as a previous, sacred being
By all of creation-
As a partner and friend.
May their landing be gentle
and our protection and love be fierce.

May this child be a joyful wake-up call to each of us
To live with gusto and stillness,
With righteous anger and creative action,
With tenderness and compassion.
May we say that your birth breathes life in each of us.

“Child, you walk on the precipice,
And teeter by the rush of the swollen river.

Listen.
Seek out understanding of others, of yourself,
Of the divine universe,
Honor the Earth and wonder
At her magnificence.

You are a miracle!
A sacred promise
Love… and hope…
And holy imagination.”

May each child find their place in a world of embrace,
Stand by water and have the right stone
Come into their palm-
Smooth, flat, fitted to their dreams,
May they draw back their miraculous arms and lean forward,
Unleashing what is theirs to give,
May that dream release and skip lightly
Across the smooth surface that mirrors the sky in the earth,
And skip, and skip,
And may the sun catch the trees, the sky,
And the child,
And the entire earth clap it’s hands.