Because This is How We Live Now

Because This is How We Live Now
by ElizaBeth Weaver-Kreider

(with thanks to Lillian Faith,
who puts out crumbs for the robins
when it snows during the Exile)

Because
this is how
we live now.

Because this is how we mitigate.
(From the Latin: mītis, soft
and agere, to act.)
We make things soft
until the harm has passed:
hearts and bellies,
breath and eyes.
Soften everything.
Mitigate.

Because this is how we Exile.
We weep. We rage.
We dance in separate living rooms,
apart.
And together.
We look into a screen,
into each other’s eyes,
and we name each other Beloved.

Because this is how we find our edges.
We sway and shift,
feeling the edge of the pose
deep in the muscle,
and then we pause,
and breathe.

Because this is how we learn
we are not invincible,
unconquerable, alone.
Because we are together
in our isolation.

Because this is how we flatten the curve of sadness,
one small thing at a time,
one little loss,
and then another,
not all at once
taking the time to feel each one
together. Alone together.

Because this is how spring comes:
one day the sweat rolls down
between shoulder blades,
and on the next day it snows.
One day you spend in ashes,
the next within the golden branches
of the forsythia bush.

Because.
This is how
we live now.
–3/23/20

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Gratitude List:
1. Foolery
2. Remembering to ask a question rather than to ignore what feels like a put-down. Deeper understandings come.
3. The feisty wren. I know, they are the terrors of the bird world in the holler, but they are also delightful to watch.
4. I’m so glad we had a good supply of thistle seed–the goldfinches are transforming, and its been years since I could sit here at this window for hours, working and watching the birds in spring.
5. Pluto. Have you seen Pluto? I know it’s a product of our silly internet culture, but it’s artful and playful, and she meets some common human need. If you haven’t seen the videos by Pluto the Dog, go Googling.

Take care of each other!

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“Fear’s contagious, but so is courage.” —Betty Williams, 1976 Nobel Peace Laureate, 1943-2020

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I had hardly begun to read
I asked how can you ever be sure
that what you write is really
any good at all and he said you can’t

you can’t you can never be sure
you die without knowing
whether anything you wrote was any good
if you have to be sure don’t write
—W. S. Merwin

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“Kindness is a mark of faith, and whoever has not kindness has not faith.” —Muhammad

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“How do I prepare a child for a future that doesn’t yet exist?” —Prince Ea

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“I can feel the suffering of millions
and yet, if I look up into the heavens,
I think it will all come right,
and that this cruelty too will end,
and that peace and tranquility will return again.
In the meantime,
I must uphold my ideals,
for perhaps the time will come
when I shall be able to carry them out.” —from The Diary of Anne Frank

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Bring me all of your dreams,
You dreamer,
Bring me all your
Heart melodies
That I may wrap them
In a blue cloud-cloth
Away from the too-rough fingers
Of the world.
—Langston Hughes, “The Dream Keeper”

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“.. I had that wonderful feeling writers get sometimes, not very often, of being ‘with’ a great many people, ancient spirits, all very happy to see me consulting and acknowledging them, and eager to let me know, through the joy of their presence, that, indeed, I am not alone.” —Alice Walker