Instructions Before Visiting Earth

"If you ever need guidance, simply slow down

your busy mind and bring your awareness

to the quiet place inside yourself."

I might remark that "simply" may be a stretch.

"Cling to nothing too tightly, even yourself,

and when its time to let go, let go with grace,

for nothing is owned, only borrowed."

Determining when its time to let go 

takes on new proportions as one 

ripens and begins to experience

the stark reality of what "letting go" 

requires of us. 

"Don't make a mess."

If you do make a mess, 

for heaven's sake,

 have the courtesy and decency 

to clean it up.

"You'll never get out alive and

time passes quickly."

Amen and Awomen to that!  

 

The Day Mary Oliver Died

Finally got a chance to watch the documentary on Mary Oliver this week.

How do you begin to thank someone who has brought such goodness into our world?

Listening to young students talk about what her poetry meant to them

was one of the most moving moments, among many.  She was truly remarkable.

"How would the sharp praise of her voice shape that long, 

slow exhale of becoming what so astonished her?"

May we keep her words alive in our hearts.

 

How Guarded Is Your Heart?

 

Still Safe

"I am still a container, not a spill."

Good heaven's, it is disturbing to consider what 

some people are going through simply to live on this planet.

"...holding my breath to see if the air is still mine."

To live with such precarious circumstances 

lives only in my imagination...or it did until I read these words.

"Human's are the only things here that aren't made of stone."

Wasn't sure I agreed until I realized, I'm not where the author is...

it might very well be true where she is "subtracting the minutes

she's lived from what is left.".  

 

What A Human Most Needs

"a knowledge of the most (s)he can do without,

and of how to get along without it."

This quote got me through some "without" times

in unexpected and appreciated ways, recently,

and I was grateful to have read it when I did.

We are so groomed to obtain whatever we need...

not much thought goes into doing without.

Although there are those who do not have the choices

some of us enjoy and that number seems to be growing larger.

Wendell Berry has my respect and admiration for the legacy 

he's left behind.  Rest in Power, indeed.

 

Bound For Glory

 "we are feminists because we dream of being fully human."

Honoring Gloria's life and what she accomplished.

Frayed and Nibbled Survivor

Aren't we all "frayed and nibbled survivors in a fallen world"?

On this Equinox, a day of equal light and dark,

I dedicate this post to Annie Dillard who put

words together in stunning arrangements

of complicated and unexpected beauty.

"I am not washed and beautiful, in control of

a shining world where everything fits, but instead 

am wondering awed about on a splintered wreck I've come to care for..."

every word speaks of reverence for the magnificence of our Earth

in all its tattered glory.

May this Autumn Equinox bring us closer

to actual equality for all.