Breath

Weighed down,

anchored like a ship in the harbor.

This grief –

A contraction, condensed around my heart.

Yet, I am filled with purpose,

I am not abandoned here.

Rather, I am tethered to all that exists – all that has ever existed.

My attention is drawn to the tender, not so distinct edges

of where my heart meets the heart of the world.

For a moment,

beating as one,

the ache moves

carries me in waves;

pulsation of the divine.

What is dying is the illusion of abandonment.

Yet, should I forget this truth,

in a world so vast, there is always the invitation

to be reborn into this love again and again.

Breath by breath

Dr. Arielle Schwartz

#reborn #rebirth #create #breath #nature #heart

A Medicine Woman’s Prayer

I will Not rescue you,

For you are not powerless.

I will not fix you.

For you are not broken.

I will not heal you.

For I see you in your wholeness.

I will walk with you through the darkness,

As you remember your light.

– Sheree Bliss Tilsley

#medicine #medicinewoman #prayer #enough #perfect

The Ballad of Reading Gaol

Yet each man kills the thing he loves

By each let this be heard,

Some do it with a bitter look,

Some with a flattering word,

The coward does it with a kiss,

The brave man with a sword!

– Oscar Wilde

#oscarwilde #ballad #reading #gaol #irony #hate #love #hurt #kill #kiss #sword #bitter #look #flattering #Word #counter

Like this …

Today I asked my body what she needed,

Which is a big deal

Considering my journey of

Not Really Asking That Much

I thought she might need more water

Or protein.

Or greens.

Or yoga .

Or supplements.

Or movement.

But as I stood in the shower,

Reflecting on her stretch marks,

Her roundness where I would love flatness,

Her softness where I would love firmness,

Those conditioned wishes

That form a bundle of

Never-Quite-Right-Ness,

She whispered very gently:

Could you just love me like this?

– Hollie Holden

#hollieholden #body #love #selflove #protein #yoga #movement #stretchmarks #unconditional #truelove #selfcompassion #be

Thorns

You picked me like a rose, enchanted

I bloomed for you, I wanted to,

To bring you happiness, undaunted

You praised sweet fragrances, fine petals

But rubbed me wrong, pricked on a thorn

Your love turned furious, unsettled

One by one, picked off my spines

I bled for you, I wanted to,

Loathing thorns once mine

With wounds unbound, began to wilt

No remorse from you, no guilt

Just harsh disdain, repulsion, pain

No longer I, your rose

Just a reminder, of what I once was

Blaming me for being wrong

But all roses come with thorns

Perhaps it’s not a rose

You wanted, all along

– Arch Hades

#thorns #rose #wounds #change #disdain #blame #wrong #bloom #sacrifice #scapegoat #diminish #bleed #less #archhades

Inventory

Four be the things I am wiser to know:
Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and a foe.

Four be the things I’d been better without:
Love, curiosity, freckles, and doubt.

Three be the things I shall never attain:
Envy, content, and sufficient champagne.

Three be the things I shall have till I die:
Laughter and hope and a sock in the eye.

– Dorothy Parker

#inventory #dorothyparker #shortpoem #poetry #idleness #sorrow #friend #foe #four #love #curiosity #freckles #doubt #three #envy #content #champagne #laughter #hope #sock

AND PEOPLE STAYED HOME

(Raja Ravi Varma)

And people stayed home
and read books and listened
and rested and exercised
and made art and played
and learned new ways of being
and stopped
and listened deeper
someone meditated
someone prayed
someone danced
someone met their shadow
and people began to think differently
and people healed
and in the absence of people who lived in ignorant ways,
dangerous, meaningless and heartless,
even the earth began to heal
and when the danger ended
and people found each other
grieved for the dead people
and they made new choices
and dreamed of new visions
and created new ways of life
and healed the earth completely
just as they were healed themselves.

– KATHLEEN O’MEARA (1869)

#lockdown #quarantine #covid19 #pandemic #socialdistancing #heal #healed #stayedhome #new #beginning #joy #peace #hope #faith

On

The Lesson of the Moth

i was talking to a moth
the other evening
he was trying to break into
an electric light bulb
and fry himself on the wires

why do you fellows
pull this stunt i asked him
because it is the conventional
thing for moths or why
if that had been an uncovered
candle instead of an electric
light bulb you would
now be a small unsightly cinder
have you no sense

plenty of it he answered
but at times we get tired
of using it
we get bored with the routine
and crave beauty 
and excitement
fire is beautiful
and we know that if we get
too close it will kill us 
but what does that matter
it is better to be happy
for a moment
and be burned up with beauty
than to live a long time
and be bored all the while 
so we wad all our life up
into one little roll
and then we shoot the roll
that is what life is for
it is better to be a part of beauty
for one instant and then cease to
exist than to exist forever
and never be a part of beauty
our attitude toward life
is come easy go easy
we are like human beings 
used to be before they became
too civilized to enjoy themselves

and before i could argue him
out of his philosophy
he went and immolated himself 
on a patent cigar lighter
i do not agree with him
myself i would rather have
half the happiness and twice
the longevity

but at the same time i wish
there was something i wanted
as badly as he wanted to fry himself

– Don Marquis

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