The Common Good

We breathe the common wind of the earth
no matter where we live, who we love,
what language we speak.

We drink the common water of the earth
no matter the color of our skin, how long we live,
the coverings we drape on our forms.

We follow the common paths of the earth
no matter our beliefs, how far we move from home,
the gold that we carry, or its lack.

May we live from these truths, our hearts
open to the holiness all around us,
our hands turned always toward the common good.

—-  Kathleen McTigue
To Wake,To Rise – William G. Sinkford, Editor (2017)

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The Rev. Kathleen McTigue is the former minister of the Unitarian Society of New Haven, in Hamden, Connecticut.  She is a contributor to Bless This Child: A Treasury of Poems, Quotations and Readings to Celebrate Birth, edited by Edward Searl  (2005), and is the author of Shine and Shadow: Meditations (2011).