For days, I’ve been hearing people express fears about the Inauguration. We no longer take the peaceful transfer of power for granted. On January 6th we discovered, not only how divided we are, but how a lie told often enough can be fomented into violence.

Federico Mayor’s poem “We Will Plant Olive Trees,”* has been  running through my mind since then.  Its images of planting and of working together for peace, speaks to my heart.

“We will plant olive trees
where before
there were thorns.

All of us the same,
each one of us different,
we will walk hand in hand
with a new song on our lips.

We will plant olive trees
where before there
were thorns.

Sharing
in the one urgent need
in this dawning
of a new century

Pax, peace, paix.
mir, shalom, salaam
we will plant olive trees
where before there
were thorns.”

Planting together, working together for understanding and peace, is the work of God.

**Federico Mayor, Spanish Director General, UNESCO, France 1987-1999 – from the book From the book, “Prayers for a Thousand Years”  Edited by Elizabeth Roberts & Elias Amidon 1999