These lands are holy,

across the oceans and around the planet,

walked by many beings,

of many names,

of many types,

human and animal and plant,

categories and nations and borders,

assaults and slaughters

and scrambling to survive,

torture and rape and fleeing,

the suffering, the blood,

no mercy shown,

no one spared.

These lands are holy,

walked in prayer,

no one owns the lands, really,

but still, there are practical considerations,

politics and economics and history,

power and resources and grievances,

and so I say--

let us walk these holy lands

with as much kindness as we can muster,

let us be slow to judge,

let us be quick to listen,

let us go quiet into the holy.