Wisdom, Justice and Love [o]

Honeydew

Honeydew let her blue gaze flit across the clearing. Since being appointed deputy, the sun had set and rise again, and she had just dispatched the morning patrol for her first time. Today, however, the sun struggled against a veil of gathering clouds, casting a somber gray hue across the camp. A light breeze caressed the she-cat's cheeks and stirred in her fur, and Honeydew let out a shiver.

Her clanmates began to wake and rise from their nests, pouring slowly out into the clearing to begin their daily routines. From her position now she could see a mixture of exhaustion, weariness, and grief in their features. The clan was still mourning its loss of their dear leader, Birdstar, and her mother, Beechfang. And yet... the seasons wait for no cat, Honeydew realized. The wind continues to blow cold, the snows continue to fall, and the sun rises and falls again and again, with no regard for the lives we have lost.

But now Honeydew had a duty to uphold, one of higher significance than she had ever dreamed would lay in her paws. Wolfblossom had entrusted in her the position of clan deputy, and it was something the young she-cat intended to take seriously, despite her inexperience. Her heart was filled with determination and love for every cat in her clan. She wanted to help guide SkyClan back to the path of honor, away from the cruel grip of violence that this war had for so long. Perhaps we have a chance to start anew, she pondered. The ashes of our sorrows may give rise to growth and tranquility, not unlike the thawing snows of leafbare yields to the vitality of newleaf.

Honeydew rose to her paws and began weaving through her clanmates, checking in on their well-being and murmuring words of support and encouragement. The words of her mother echoed in her mind.

You may not be front and center, but you are a pillar behind those that are. Clans would fall apart if they didn't have cats like you. You are important.

Mother, do you see me now? she wondered.

---

"I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice.
A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love."

["Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" by Rev. Martin Luther King. 4 April 1967]