WONDERING (poem)

Am I truly known -
To myself and to others?
I don’t think I am.
I don’t think I will ever be.
But I am not alone.
I am a part of a club that spans continents and generations,
Starting from the first person who was a person and not an ape anymore,
Whose mind opened its wings, so strange and new.
From then on, throughout history,
How many people do we really know?
First, we wrote books about some.
Then we realized that so many important others had been left out.
Now we are hastily adding them.
But can this task of remembering ever be completed?
Like the wings of a butterfly,
Smallest actions can cause big effects,
Connections no one will know about.
Imagine how many people have lived on the Earth:
Laughed and loved,
Healed and hurt,
Hoped and despaired,
Tried and failed,
And sometimes succeeded.
They all have mattered,
In ways beyond good and bad
That nobody will ever fully grasp,
Because a hurricane cannot be traced back
To the butterfly that caused it.
We will sing songs about heroes and villains.
We will disagree on who our heroes and villains should be.
That’s okay.
Disagreeing is human.
But I hope that we can also agree on something:
You, and I, and the infinity of souls
Will remain unknown
To ourselves and to others,
Yet we all matter.
Beyond good and bad,
We are forever tied together in the fabric of humanity.
I hope that once in a while,
You can light a candle, or plant a flower,
Or just sit for a few minutes in silence,
Quietly wondering
About all the butterflies
That have ever danced in the wind.

*If you liked the poem, you might also want to watch the video below, where I where I read the poem to the beautiful music by Maarten Schellekens. 
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**You can also check out my other poems here!