Forewarned, Forearmed

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

"Our life is what our thoughts make it." - Marcus Aurelius

"Forewarned, forearmed; to be prepared is half the victory." - Miguel de Cervantes

"Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be achieved through understanding." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Peace we want because there is another war to fight against poverty, disease and ignorance." - Indira Gandhi

Now, human nature is no less subject to storms than the natural world; one-upmanship, even between friends, probably the moat common cause for a storm of fraught emotions breaking over many households. The harsher and stronger our emotions, the worse the storm and the longer (if ever) any sense of calm restored.

Sadly, storms can arrive and break seemingly without warning, not least because human nature is such that we often miss the tell-tale signs that all is not well; before we know it, the unexpected strikes and we are left to find a way through it if we can, not always possible unless we sit down and talk about it, something some world leaders and families are least willing to do... possibly because they haven’t a clue where to start?

Where weather forecasters can help us plan our days, there is no one but ourselves to help us plan our lives; all the more important that we take time to spot the clues, try to understand each other more, learn to avoid the worst storms altogether, talk peace before war has a chance to tread us into the ground…

The greater human tragedy of the war in Ukraine - for both sides - is it may have been avoided had Russia's president Putin seen the need for talks before assuming he had the upper hand anyway, so... why bother?

Such is the Landscape of Power, littered with as many false assumptions as good intentions; small wonder, then, that humanity loses its way from time to time...?

FOREWARNED, FOREARMED

Stormy weather,
scary flashes of lightening
brightening the gloom
with ominous glows now and then,
here, there, everywhere;
landscapes of fear in you-me-us
across the world,
expecting no less, even through tears
for far kinder yesterdays 

Storm, relaxing
its grip on all we creatures
great and small;
Apollo, trying to give any remaining
sense of doom and gloom
a welcome lift, child hands greeting
sunshine come to enlighten
mind-body-spirits in every corner of a world
left struggling to survive

Storm passing,
sky turning a mellow yellow,
clouds a shade lighter,
for a sense of Apollo taking our side
and working hard
to remind us all that not every day
can enjoy fairy tale endings,
up to love, lovers, flowers and evergreens
to keep turning our pages

Any tomorrow,
as likely as not, starting off
in much the same way
as yesterday, but for dawn’s early light
a shade brighter,
mind-body-spirit all the lighter
for a personal space
now primed to look on the brighter side of life,
forewarned, forearmed

Copyright R. N. Taber, 2022