Let Them

"No matter what they do or say, 

don't you dare doubt your worth

or the beauty of your truth."

This is something I'd sincerely love to be able to accomplish.

I'm affected when I encounter someone who acts as if

I'm either not there or an annoyance in their world.

I wish with all my heart I could brush it off

and carry on in my happy way.

I wish it didn't cause a disturbance  in my molecules. 

I cringe when I find it coming up hours or days later.

If I could wave a magic wand, I would do so 

to immediately dispel the unpleasant scent 

that follows me from such encounters 

and wants to cling to my skin.

It also inspires me to remember that

my actions affect the world around me

in the same way...leaving a similar scent.

This reminds me of this quote that returns again and again...

"stop walking through the world looking for confirmation that you don't belong, 

because you'll always find it once you've made that your mission — 

same goes for scouring people's faces for evidence that you're not enough." 

Brene Brown, Braving the Wilderness

However, this feels different.  This is when you're expectation is to be treated 

at least politely and get a decidedly different response.

All my life, I've been taught and believed that kindness overcomes cruelty.

That we are meant to care about and for each other as best we can.

It's my choice and I choose to continue to bring whatever shred of kindness I can

into this world no matter how treacherous and brutal the terrain.

 

There is not

Poetry is a language of the senses...

this inspires me to pay more attention

to what humble verses are being

chanting down in the fibers of my feelings

through the tributaries of my eyes,

my nose, my ears, my mouth and my skin.

I did a search to investiage

 the field of the senses and found there are up to 53

identified....depending on who's counting. 

News to me!

Here are some of the additions:

My simple assumption about poetry being the language of the senses

has opened up a much wider world than I imagined.

I love when this happens.

Isn't that what poetry is all about?

 

How Is It?

"This is better than we thought! 

The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said,

 grander, more subtle, more elegant"

Sagan hits the bullseye with a resounding thwack for me.

"A religion...that stressed the magnificence of the Universe

as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth

reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped

 by the conventional faiths."

When I encountered this quote, 

I thought, wow! 

This says it exactly!  

How did I miss it?

Then it occurred to me.  

I was deeply enmeshed in 

one of those faiths when this was written.

I'd like to believe some of the faiths today

recognize and appreciate and give credence to Sagan's thoughts.

The Clearing

A river of words to describe the actual river...

isn't it a marvel?  

"Soon even that will sink and the water will be clear again.

I, too, have felt the gift of slowing, how it invites a sedimentation

of all I try to carry--the silt of my stories, the muck of the world."

With the quantity of muck in this world, 

I feel how vital the gift of slowing 

is for shifting the molecules of frenzy 

into a quiet trust and vigorous hope.

". . .the more calm I am, 

the more clear I can become."

This is the way we remain 

fiercely sane, unwaveringly civil 

and decent.

 

Keep Some Room In Your Heart

"Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable."

While I know full well what Mary O means,

we are living in a world where a lot of unimaginable

things are happening which I refuse to keep room for in my heart.

Perhaps I should say, I see them but do not entertain them.

(Things you "refuse" tend to grow larger)

In light of this, I want to say, 

"keep some room in your heart

for the unimaginable."

 of the kind that uplifts and inspires

our world toward goodness,

toward decency and fairness,

toward truth and honest justice...

toward total equality and equity for all...

feel free to add your own kind of unimaginable.

 

In The Name of Daybreak

 

I am swearing an oath to uphold 

these words from this moment on.

May they live strong and long in me. 

To be:

"a guardian of nature,

a healer of misery,

a messenget of wonder,

an architect of peace."

I Have Found Such Joy

"I wish I might tell every woman who goes seeking far

for some elusive, feverish delight, that very close to home

the great joys are: the elemental things. . ."

"The Message" seems tack sharp clear this week, doesn't it?

We already have what we need...it might be buried deep,

but it's there...quietly waiting for us to notice.

It's not necessarily loud and bodacious...

more often steady, patient, and reliable...

the foundation holding up the entire enterprise.