maintaining joy

I heard a wise woman say "Maintain Joy."

So, however many days I read the newspaper
real news not fake news
meeting intelligence, 
meeting idiocy,
meeting greed,

I maintain joy.



However many days I feel despair 
about our humanity and its relationship to water and the water protectors,
about our humanity and its lack of responsibility,
about greed in the corporate world visibly merging with our very own US president, 
((my president, not my leader))


I maintain joy.

However many times in a day my mind wanders to compare
this to that
then to now
now to then
her to him
me to her
me to him
me to them,


I maintain joy.


I have retrieved the golden ball
from inside the murk of my deep.
As I integrate this golden sphere into myself
I breathe through the dark
I see through the dark,

Maintaining joy.