Wednesday, December 29, 2021

Edges


 Loving yourself over making others comfortable.
How's that for a challenge in the new year?
I'm feeling some serious edges just thinking about it.
Being so well indoctrinated in tending to others,
its like visiting foreign territory 
before the telegraph was invented;
without a map, and no GPS.
Like being on the Starship Enterprise
exploring a whole new landscape.
kastilwell


Monday, December 27, 2021

Song For The Turtles of the Gulf

 I I heard this poem in a podcast on Christmas Eve and it leveled me. 
"old great mother, ... the mosaic growth of shell so detailed,
no part of you simple, meaningless, 
or able to be created by any human,
only destroyed." 
"Forgive us for being thrown off true..."

My heart longs for the answer 
to saving our home.
My heart longs for true.
kastilwell



Friday, December 24, 2021

Still Possible



Each morning, I gift myself the experience 
of the next poem in David Whyte's book, Still Possible.
This quote is the final stanza 
of the title poem from today's reading.
It choked me up.
I would change the last words to
of being "felt and" said.
He is exceptionally skilled 
at doing just that.
May your Christmas Eve 
be deeply felt.

kastilwell



 

Wednesday, December 22, 2021

What Hope Is

This is a gigantic shift of perspective for me.
Hope has always been a nebulous abstraction.
Similar to faith and hope and love, even.
What do they really mean in organic 
and messy human terms?  
They are like some faraway galaxy 
we can only gaze at from afar and 
HOPE to achieve.

This turns it into a concrete, actionable power.
This thought has produced a seismic shift
in my understanding and in my reality. 

On this note, I wish you everything you hope for.

kastilwell
 

Monday, December 20, 2021

We Need Hope


 As I've come to expect and deeply appreciate, 
Brene gives a new perspective
and increases the nuance of words and thoughts
that have become fixed in my brain. 
They expand and deepen 
with new ways of seeing and feeling their meaning.
Interesting tributaries are discovered
and open for exploration.
A pilgrimage with hope.
kastilwell


Monday, December 13, 2021

It Just Let Her Breathe


 The first part of this was 
a clever way of expressing 
something many of us are 
intimately familiar with.
For me, the glory arrived
with the last six lines.  
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
With deepest gratitude, 
I'm becoming intimately familiar with that!
kastilwell

Friday, December 10, 2021

Everything Will Be Ok

Oh, to take these words and etch them 
on a permanent plaque inside my skin.
Keep looking 
for the small signs,
the quiet voices.
Believe in their heralding.
Trust in their promise.  
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
kastilwell
 

Wednesday, December 8, 2021

Confusion


 How many times, when paralyzed with confusion,
would this thought have given me a new perspective?
A way to see providing open windows rather than closed doors.
So many. 
So very many.
Now I have it as part of my repertoire.
kastilwell


Monday, December 6, 2021

I Wonder


 This is so powerful, it must be shared.
It speaks eloquently to the state of things.
kastilwell

Friday, December 3, 2021

Think of Me


 Expanding on the theme of the river...
I contemplate our local Little Tennessee River
which stretches through our small town
providing companionship for 
those walking on the Greenway,
(thanks be to those who make this possible;)
I marvel at its beauty; 
its way of presenting 
a different scene each day;
how it reflects the light of the sky;
the trees,  plants,  people, and buildings,
(as well as the lumber yard and debris)
while carrying or concealing 
all kinds of intricate life and death
in its depths.
I prefer to ignore the darker elements
but they exist and the river endures.
This line of thought gives additional texture
to my inner river reflection.
kastilwell


Thursday, December 2, 2021

To The River


 To live by a river is something I dream of.  
I'm fortunate to have powerful creeks and rivers running close by.  
I'm also contemplating an inner river.
Flowing often unnoticed beneath the surface.
Silently replenishing and renewing my interior terrain.
kastilwell