I’ve been sick all week. I took off a day of school–probably should have taken three. And I haven’t been exercising to get ready for this 5K Turkey Trot on Thursday morning. So the choice right now was to spend time really working out a good poem for today or hitting the treadmill, and I am going to have to choose the treadmill. So I took the first metaphor that tracked me down, ran with it, and threw it onto the page. Part of the contract I have with myself for these months of writing a poem a day is that any day’s poem can be garbage. I’m not sure where this poem fits, but it’s definitely a toss-off.
by Beth Weaver-Kreider
Remember the slippery fish of a child,
unwilling participant in adult world,
who could melt out of your arms,
slip onto the floor and be off
and running for the hills
before you could catch your breath?
Some days my brain is that child,
anchored as it is to my body,
it somehow slithers through my grasp
even as I am sitting it down
to do its important work,
and it’s off and dancing in the mist
before I even know it’s gone.
“Walk with the Spirit. Wherever you go, whatever you do, whoever you are with. Walk in the light of what we have learned from our ancestors. Each person is worthy of respect. A better world is possible for us all. Our love will finally overcome our fear. Let that wisdom guide your steps. Let that message be made visible in who you are. The path to peace is laid before your feet. Walk with the Spirit.” —Steven Charleston
“We are in a time of deep transformation. Deep change. We did not ask for this to be the case. We did not even fully anticipate it. But it is our reality. It is our challenge. The Spirit has confidence in us to move history in the direction of hope. We are called to create a future. And we are equal to the task — with the help of heaven and the kinship of all living things.” —Steven Charleston
“You pray for the hungry. Then you feed them.
That is how prayer works.” —Pope Francis
“Allow dark times to season you.” —Hafiz
“I don’t have to respond whenever provoked.
No one does.
Steward your energy well.
We have justice work to do.
And strategy to outline.
And self-care to prioritize.
And love to live.
It’s okay to let provocateurs leave empty-handed.”
—Bernice King
“A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one’s neighbor—such is my idea of happiness.” —Leo Tolstoy
“I don’t have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness. It’s right in front of me, if I’m paying attention and practicing gratitude.” —Brené Brown
“Oh, to love what is lovely, and will not last!” —Mary Oliver
“I don’t have to figure it all out. I don’t have to be perfect for every moment. I just need to be Present. I just need to show up.” —Beth Weaver-Kreider (My past self is preaching to my present self.)
“The ego forgets that it’s supposed to be the little traveler with its bindle bag over its shoulder, following behind [not ahead] the radiant Soul who walks as more wise, more tender, more loving, more peaceful trailblazer throughout our lives.
.
Ego aspires sometimes to wear the garments of the Soul, which are way too big, making the ego trip over the miles of radiant robes it tries to wrap itself in, instead of following the light those robes give off. And tending to the Soul’s needs, the Soul’s directions.
Yet with Soul in the lead, and ego following the lead of the Soul, then we can fulfill the vision of the Holy People…” —Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes
“Driven by the forces of love, the fragments of the world are seeking one another.” —Teilhard de Chardin
“There’s a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line.” ―Oscar Levant
“Scriptures, n. The sacred books of our holy religion, as distinguished from the false and profane writings on which all other faiths are based.” —Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914), [The Devil’s Dictionary, 1906]
“There are real world implications to ‘just having opinions’ and those implications almost always involve doing deep harm to marginalized communities.” —Kaitlin Shetler
Mockingbird Chronicles 