One of Emily Dickinson’s more well-known poems, "I had no time to hate" addresses some of humanity’s greatest fears in two short stanzas: the passage of time, and our own mortality. The nature of time is terrifying – everyone thinks that there is so much time to do everything they want to do, but days and weeks pass in the blink of an eye, and often so do years and decades, and even entire lifetimes. Humans have so little time in this world, and so much power to change it, that we have an obligation to share our love with the people around us, and to leave the world a better place than when we entered it.

"I had no time to hate, because
the grave would hinder me,
and life was not so ample I
could finish enmity.

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Nor had I time to love, but since
some industry must be,
the little toil of love, I thought,
was large enough for me."

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(January 2015)