French la Vie

Recently, my friend Arnelle shared this haiku

and it has stayed with me:

“Barn’s burnt down,

now

I can see the moon.”

— Mizuta Masahide (17th-century Japanese poet and samurai).

The haiku awakens me to a deeper, more critical, and even cynical perspective on the world. It sparks a shift in how I see societal issues and realities, forcing me to confront the injustices, greed, and dominance that often go along in the shadows. What once seemed abstract from my world now feels full center, as if the barn is burning down and, in its ashes, the moon—truth—reveals itself; no longer is it obscured by the smoke of ignorance.

Here is distraction-

Song, color, banner waving over here, look.

Keeping it over there, far away from home.

Here I am, the wolf howling at the moon.

None of us are safe until we all are safe.