Sticks and stones my break my bones,
But words will never hurt me.
English proverb
Microclimates
Microbiomes
Microaggressions
We live in a microclimate
Microbiomes live in us
Microaggressions are a part of life
What we need more of
Are microvalidations
More microaffirmations
We’ve become trapped in our silos
We’ve become contemptuous of
Those who don’t agree with us
They must not be human
Our country
Our cities
Our friends
Have become divided
We can’t keep distancing ourselves from each other
“We must all hang together, our most assuredly we shall all hang separately”
Benjamin Franklin
Our children our grandchildren
Need us to hang together
For their future
A healthy democracy requires its citizens
To work together
To remain free
We need to see our interdependence
And break down the barriers that divide us
We need each other
Start with microvalidations
Open the door for someone and say hello
Talk to your neighbors
Look people in the eye and acknowledge they exist
Reconnect with each other
Affirm the humanness in everyone
