#MicroPoetry|February ’21 Reflections

We are so busy in our lives. We try to balance this commitment with that unexpected demand. Our attention is drawn to reading either this text or that new update in our newsfeed. It becomes all too easy to confuse doing with acting, habits with choosing, and motion with action. Yet if we had a guide or a touchstone, perhaps we could begin to claim our creative agency.

What if one of those touchstones was justice?
How might today look different as you walk out the door into a new day?

We are on a journey toward an inevitable reality that we call death. For some this is harrowing and others intriguing: sometimes we hold both of these at the same time.

As is often the case with these poetic reflections, we are reminded that the spiritual journey toward awakening is not easy but engaging in the finitude we all experience creates opportunities to imagine what might be next and how our choices today may inform that which is unknown on the other side of life’s veil.

I am often struck by the amazing dreams and ideas that people share with me. Not only are people creative, but in the act of sharing other generative opportunities arise. It is unfortunate, therefore, for all of us that we are sometimes exposed to messages that limit or box us in. Sometimes that acts to not only stifle that which we might birth but cause us harm. Letting go such limitations and nurturing in ourselves and one another is indeed a noble and blessed pursuit.

What are the moments that have revealed unexpected learning to you?
What emotions inspire you?
Worry you?

That which we experience, and the resulting feelings are blessings. Whether fear or joy, our emotions are a response to the gift of life. They encapsulate and embody our essence. Embracing them as teachings offered is an important step upon the journey to awakening. Such awareness reveals that we are meant to create. In such revelation, our dreams connect us to one another in ways that allows us to brightly blaze.

Silence and talking, listening and speaking are often placed in opposition to one another. In the loud lull that often pervades our lives, from tv to YouTube, there is no denying this reality. Yet, at the core to the inward journey is the gift to be present to hear that which words alone cannot say and to hear what our bodies say without speaking. In these holy places and moments revelations arise that helps us in our own realisation of our and Others’ beauty.

Often, we think that the clarity that questions invite will make things easier or simpler once an answer is revealed. Sometimes this is the case. Usually, I have found, in life’s journey we live in places and spaces that are less about clarity and more about choosing to live in the comfort of ambiguity. When we arrive at this place of balance, then we can begin to explore what wisdom might be surfacing and how we might share it to the benefit of ourselves and others.

What is most valuable to you?
What do we mean by value?

Often the word ‘value’ is dressed in words around finance and money. Sometimes it is understood as an exchange of something for something, tit for tat, quid pro quo. I find this much too superficial when considered through the lens of self-reflection and the practices of a spiritual life.

I invite us to consider a more intentional engagement with the word. What we do in our lives, not what we spend or say helps us begin to identify what we value.

If we reflect on our time spent today, what does it reveal about what we value?

Being present and offering gentleness is one of the most amazing strengths I have seen displayed and modelled during some of life’s hardest moments. Whether in grief or anger, this resilient kindness has served to bridge what otherwise might have become more difficult and fraught with hurt. Being this presence requires intention and grounding. I pray we all find ways to be gentle with ourselves and one another. Being this way offers healing in the midst of the hurting that occurs as our days unfold.