Poetic Revelations: Life, on a Silver Platter

Precious beyond Measure

“Wasn’t it death that taught me  
to stop measuring my lifespan by length,

but by width? Do you know how many beautiful things  
can be seen in a single second? How you can blow up

a second like a balloon and fit infinity inside of it? 
—Andrea Gibson, from “In the Chemo Room”

This is a weekly publication for heart-centered warriors, swimming through this thing called life with an intact, open heart (and voice).

SELECTED POEMS

• In the Chemo room I wear mittens of ice so I don’t lose my fingernails. But I took a risk to write this down, Andrea Gibson

• For the Days I Stop wanting a Body, Andrea Gibson

Dear Embodied Hearts and Dancing Souls,

I recommended a new writer on my Substack page. I link you to two of her poems above. She - who is in a cancer journey - is worth your time. She teaches honestly about what it is to feel truly alive.

Fantasy and In Real Life. For about two decades, I have carried a tiny yet lingering fantasy of being taken care of by a butler. Yes its all a product of being raised on English literature. In the fantasy version, someone lays out ironed clothes, just so. They have the teapot ready and know how I like my toast buttered. (Just so.)

In real life, I found myself on West Coast time. I scheduled myself to work on Wednesday because my nieces were supposed to be in school. They were home sick. In runs my 5 year old niece with a smile on her face. She already knew I was in a meeting and came fully prepared. Rather than talk, she gave me a piece of paper. On it was a handwritten menu. AVOCADO TOAST was one option. PEANUT BUTTER WITH BANANA AND CINNAMON was another. (Yes, she spelt “cinnamon.”) I could not resist choosing the latter. Oh, and drink choices were on the back.

I marvelled at her thorough thoughtfulness. I felt embraced by it. In the moment, I recognized life was giving me the “or better” version of my fantasy. Of course, in real life, I also caught the virus she and her sister were carrying.

At the Edges and the Center. I read a piece by Carrie Newcomer last week, how broken-hearted she was reading about the anguish, horror and death in the current Israel-Hamas war. She herself quoted a popular poem by Wendell Berry, “The Peace of Wild Things”:

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things

In the poem, the author goes away to the edges of this world and lies down to find peace. In her post, Carrie Newcomer writes about how her troubled heart led her to write a new song (Sanctuary). Rather than go to an outer edge, she moved to her inner center to find her authentic response. I love how she traveled from a human predictment at her edges to her own authentic response from her center.

There is an invitation here for each of us. What is alive for us at the edges of our life?What is the authentic response from our center?

Conscious Loving: To walk with an open heart is to acknowledge that I may not have the ability to protect those I love from their life circumstances. As a human, I cannot.

But more and more, I’m turning to my Ability to Love as a conscious tool with its own power. Before I share, let me remind. I was reminded last week that external factors, especially from our nuclear family, settle into our psyche at a very early age. By 5, 6 or 7 we’ve already recalibrated our underlying motivations…modulated our subconscious behavior in order to receive the Love we have forgotten we already are.

Instead just imagine an adoring Parent looking at you, beaming at all your natural traits and tendencies. They see you! They know you! They love you exactly how you are. This is the Love I want you to remember you are.

When I am away from the people (or animals!) I want to protect, I climb into my heart space, recall a picture of them in my heart-mind, and glow my heart into their Whole Being. You can even ask your spirit guides to carry your Love to their spirit guides. You are Loved, I say. You are precious beyond measure. I visualize a gold light from my heart enveloping them, like the wings of a mighty angel.

Rather than remaning troubled, my heart finds a peace to rest in. Exercise your heart-light.

Stay #heartwoke. To your exquisite unfolding,

Monisha

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NOTES:

1. There is Dance Chapel tonight (10-24-2023)!