We are Still Here – A Song for The World
A reflection on sorrow, uncertainty – and a quiet gratitude that still lives beneath it all.
Introduction: This poem speaks to the pain in the world – and the quiet gratitude that remains. Even in sorrow, life continues. We are still here, and that, in itself, is something to be thankful for. Sadness and gratitude can exist side by side – both are true, both are part of being human.
We Are Still Here
There is so much pain.
So much sadness,
so much grieving.
It feels like everyone is grieving,
like the world is aching through each of us.
There is so much pain.
And it feels like
there’s no clear way forward.
My mind grasps,
tries to understand,
but there’s only empty air.
Nothing to hold onto.
Nothing to understand.
I think my body is picking up the world –
right now.
This is the state of the world:
suffering, confusion, bewilderment.
So many people unsure where they’ll be tomorrow.
Including me.
Even though I have a house,
still –
I don’t know what tomorrow will bring.
As human beings,
we don’t really know anything.
We have habits,
habitual patterns,
shared beliefs about what reality is.
But they’re just that –
beliefs.
We don’t really know.
It’s always been like this.
But now –
now the world is showing us.
The illusion is cracking.
Maybe we’re waking up
to the truth that: I don’t know.
We’ve lived in a bubble –
believing in progress,
in more,
better,
safer.
We built structures,
borders,
values,
norms.
And we called it reality.
But it was temporary.
Agreements.
Decisions.
Now it’s all falling apart –
as it always has.
We are in a new time.
It is time to embrace our uncertainty,
our basic insecurity,
without trying to grasp or fix.
To allow ourselves not to know.
I don’t know.
I don’t know anything.
What I do feel
is this mixture –
grief,
bewilderment,
a vague ache of sadness.
But saying this,
letting it move through me,
helps.
Helps me just be here,
in my body.
Letting my heart release its tension.
The birds still sing.
The waves still roll.
The trees still move.
The wind flows through it all.
In that sense,
nothing has changed.
We are still standing.
Still here.
I’m still here.
Even if I no longer know who I am,
what anything is,
or what tomorrow will bring –
I am still here.
Free,
and full of gratitude for this life.

Charlotte Jigen Juul
I am a Zen priest with a MA in Contemplative Psychotherapy and Buddhist Psychology from Naropa University, Boulder, Colorado, USA and a BA in Psychosynthesis from “The Psychosynthesis and Education Trust” in London. Besides that, I am a certified SE-Practitioner (SEP), in Trauma Psychology, Somatic Experience (SE-practitioner, Peter Levine), I am a certified BigMind Facilitator by Zen Master Genpo Roshi and became an “Ordained Zen priest” in 2018.
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