#MicroPoetry|September ’22 Reflections

It is easy to be overwhelmed. Political strife, violence near and far, climate going crazy, and illnesses previously only illustrated in bad movies, it is understandable that one might be melancholy at the least and despondent at the worst.

Yet it is in the midst of life’s crucible that those who have nurtured us to arise to the occasion, the love invested and the wisdom offers, percolates. These trusts invite us to make choices that offer hope even when that may not be where many find themselves looking.

I remember my first driving lesson and the teacher made something very clear. Where we look, when driving, often determines the direction set by the steering wheel! This teaching continues to impress upon me a significant truth beyond simply driving.

Where we look and how we frame the world is where we arrive. What we create, regardless of whether we do so with intention or rote, is tied directly to where we look.

As you look out into the day, what do you want to see?

Whether you watch science fiction, read poetry that excites your imagination, and/or take dreaming seriously, it is in the pause that things often become clear.

I believe this space between what is and what will be is a thin place, where potential, some might call magic, dwells. To amplify this moment, requires just two ingredients: intention and choice.

In this moment, imagining what might be, what is about to happen to bring that it into being?

It’s one thing to recognise that one of our patterns, choices, or ways of being in the world require consideration. It is certainly another to make adjustments, small or great, need alone make such changes.

It is easy to feel that when we talk about wellness it is either hollow platitude or downloaded to something we have to do on our own. Wellness, however, when nurtured by a community and for its members, becomes a beautiful manifestation of seeing in one another that we are each Beloved.

Whether it’s painting or gardening, fixing a car or writing a paper, the actual thing, if you will, is usually not as much work as the preparation. It is easy to forget this, when we look at the final product of a colourful room, harvest in baskets, the purring of an engine or the submission.

I believe it is in the preparing that we can identify our values and commitments. If we look at such practice with intention, then we must ask ourselves reflective questions that promise to help us not only be more creative and productive, but to grown in self-awareness as to what it is we bring into the world and our communities.

What do you believe?
What is your guiding principle when walking into the day?
What does that which convicts you, embolden you to offer care to another?
When you see the suffering of another, what story or experience leads you to lend a hand?
When you find your own battery low, to whom do you reach for support?
When you close your eyes this evening, where have you been tender in this day?

When we use words, they can serve to excite our imaginations or they can silence not only the Other, but ourselves. I believe we are meant to put our creativity into the former.

When we share what dreams we have as individuals with our communities, we begin to shape a future in which dignity and diversity become just not expectation or norm, but akin to the air we breathe. In this environment, we journey into a future in which we are all free to bloom into the Blessing we each bear.

The inner journey draws our attention to our mortality. This unfolding knowing also helps us shift from seeing life as fragile or precarious to resilient. This might seem like a paradox because our lives are all of these things.

This tension, which can be creative, also highlights that we will lose those for whom we are greatly attached. The gift of these deep connexion, therefore, are also both tenuous and nurturing of not only who we become but who we might companion with others as they too awaken.