#MicroPoetry|February ’20 Reflections

When you look up from the day’s end or look to the next one coming: what do you see?
What do you want to see?
For what do you long for?
Is your answer the same for each question?
If not, what changes might you need to make to glimpse not what has been shaped for you, but that which is calling you to shape it?

When you listen to the journey upon which you have been, what do you hear?
Where are those moments, often in the midst of challenge or struggle, that something new was heard? Unexpected?
It is often in those moments, in reflection or immediately, that insight or revelation occurs. Often it is not what we might have considered, but it becomes a touchstone to be better.
What wisdom do you possess that waits to be shared to help others?

Have you ever considered that within you is you and that the you, you think you are, is simply a shadow of your complete you?
Other than this question perhaps hurting our heads, this spiritual journey challenges us to align our being with our dreaming so our doing makes that happen. There are always pragmatic choices we must make, but to lose this wonder full recognition is a loss indeed.
What do you imagine and what do you need from others to make it happen?
In intentional community, dreams may indeed come true …

What inspires you?
What emboldens you?
In some quarters, these questions can detract from the challenges many experience when privilege is a barrier to living dreams. In turn, this can be an alienating and hard message that reinforces who has and who does not.

This verse attempts to play with that by recognising it is in the choices we make, based in the reality we find ourselves, that can nurture one another. In supporting one another, the dreams we bring to the world foster a culture that allows us all to thrive.

There are many ways to explore the role our intention has in shaping the world we see when we arise to greet each new day. This exercise is central to a spiritual discipline of self-knowing and awakening. It does not mean it is easy work. The reward is liberating when we realise and claim the agency we have. This musing plays with this intention through the metaphor of seed sowing.
What do you want to plant today so others may thrive tomorrow?

Kindness is one of the most humanising responses we can offer to one another. It takes little to do, costs nothing, yet the offer, the extension of dignity to the other is a powerful force. Whether it’s shovelling someone’s lane, helping when one has stumbled, or simply listening without trying to fix, it is a powerful example of how caring for one another transcends the many artificial barriers that too often keep us from seeing one another as human.

There is always a balance between the imagination and doing. They are, at their best, mutually connected partners who only thrive when there is one and the other. They are not necessarily linearly connected, but one must often follow the other. Without dreaming or aspiring, our work becomes not only mundane, but threatens to be limited by preserving what was. Imagination without action becomes the purview of privilege that benefits the few at the expense of the many.

I have always appreciated the image of our being as a vessel or a container. Something which reflects that what we put into ourselves is of import to our and one another’s wellness. I have also enjoyed playing with the metaphor as with what we fill the universe. How we take our joys and hurts and pour them out is a powerful act of agency. Recognising and embracing this power, which we all possess, I believe is a helpful opportunity to awaken to the choices we make when we respond to harms caused and experienced and joys offered and enjoyed.