Girl With Death Mask, by Frida Kahlo
I have never seen this one before. I post it today because it is one of the images that Robert Brewer offers as inspiration for writing an ekphrastic poem (a poem inspired by or connected to an image).
You have been walking through desert for centuries,
walking for hundreds of miles toward mountains.
Suddenly there in your path stands the guardian.
Every quest, every dream, every task has its challenger–
She who will stand at the gate of your destiny,
waiting to ask you the questions you came for:
What is the thing that you fear? Can you face it?
What is the name of the monster that haunts you?
Can you look death in the eye and say, “Feed Me”?
If She reveals Herself at your parting,
you must be ready to hold what She offers you:
a small golden aster and three white-hot stones.
Gratitude List:
1. The principals at my school. They’re thoughtful, supportive, restorative, and they have a keen and careful vision for the school community.
2. This morning a small boy asked me to do stretches with him, like they do in school every morning. I love that his teacher is teaching them to stretch as well as to read.
3. Challengers. I am trying really hard to turn this one into a gratitude. Deep, deep down, I truly am actually grateful for yesterday’s challenger moment. (Perhaps I need to do some more stretches to help that bit of gratitude bubble upward.)
4. Autumn wind: it calls me to adventure.
5. The helpers. All those people in Paris and Beirut who ran to help, who offered safe houses, who hugged and held and helped. It seems to be too much of a truth today that some people will lash out and try to harm. But as much of a truth and greater is that more people will rush in to help and to heal. May it always be so.
May we carry healing with us wherever we go.
Mockingbird Chronicles 