A poem by my esteemed colleague and dear friend Diane Brady Leighton:

The Task Before Us

I am so grateful to be alive in this moment, to be able to do this work

The statement catches you off your guard

Upsets the inner narrative, reframes the picture

You often scoop up wonder

like a palm full of stream water

among the trees, under the stars

Even here, even now, you can feel it

when you march as a hive, sing as a flock

Instants, moments

like polaroid snaps

But the whole landscape,

be grateful for that?

Like a Rubik’s cube

your mind twists and turns

knows it is right somehow

You visit the new baby, the one who arrived early,

The one that fought to stay here

How have any of us survived? The father wonders aloud,

the boulder of this new work heavy on his shoulders

Then it lands like that duck you saw last summer,

the one with the red plum who 

entered gracefully onto the still water

Grateful to be alive

able to do this work,

to hold it heavy on your shoulders

Diane Brady-Leighton

Minneapolis Minnesota Winter 2026