Poetic Revelations: Bowing to the Mystery
Singing with purpose
“Classically, the vacuum is boring. Nothing is happening.”
~ Daniel Harlow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
This weekly publication is for all heart-centered warriors, trying to navigate this thing we call life with an intact open heart.
SELECTED POEMS
In Praise of Mystery: a poem for Europa, Ada Limon
Singularity, Maria Howe
Dear Embodied Hearts and Dancing Souls,
The quote above is tongue in cheek. Lots of ‘nothingness’ at the surface. Some movement below the surface. Time to remember that in quantym physics as in math, Nothingness is essential. Only from the void, from the nullness, does something spring.
Bird. A Rufous Anna hummingbird started to visit last week. It likes to stand on a thin, dead branch at the tip-top of the tree, right in front of my desk where I can see it. She caught my eye right away because she was so tiny–less than 3 inches. Only when she turned her head in profile did I spot the long hooked beak. More remarkable still, it returns multiple times a day sometimes and just hangs out nearly eye level with me.
I could make meaning out of this, or I could just feel grateful for this regular companion to my days. I choose the latter. I adore her and am grateful for the visits.
Still, there are mysteries below our sky: the whale song, the songbird singing its call in the bough of a wind-shaken tree. ~ Ada Limon, In Praise of Mystery
Bowing. At the edge of this clearing, I find bowing helps. I was eating corn and noticed a stomach pain. Something was not having an easy time in its passage. My first inclination was to worry but then I remembered this could also exacerbate the pain. Mentally and energetically, my second instinct was to bow to the process to not make the pain worse. This sounds weird, I know, but the pain calmed quickly. I have done this before using the ho'oponopono prayer, addressing points of pain until they disappear. It requires a sincere heart.
Bowing was an act of deep acceptance of what was happening in my body in the moment. I did the same thing with my sorrow. Bowing to the sorrow meant I was willing to respect its role in my life–where it came from, why it stayed, its purpose-even when I had no understanding of what this was. Even when things don't feel good, and I don’t understand why, I can bow to an underlying IS-ness and purpose in the root of all things. Its kind of liberating.
By the end of the week, after a qigong routine, information rose to my awareness like an umbrella opening, gradually. I could see and feel it in front of me: I am ready to let go of sorrow as the primary relationship I held onto with a parent. The energy (the sorrow?) lingered before me, acknowledging me before leaving. I am not under the illusion that I am no longer going to feel this sorrow, but it is also true that I am freer of its tight hold on me.
What I love about this process is the physics of it. Within 2 days of this clearing, I received a beautiful call from my mother telling me how much she missed me. Hearing the joy in her voice filled up my insides like a song. It was exactly what my inner child wanted to hear. Miracles. We can let go of old stories and we must, to make vital room for our new ones. Our simple act: to choose.
Song. I’m experimenting with including sounding and singing in my daily morning routine. From the time the sound finds it way up my throat, the entire experience is a journey. Sound finding its way to melody finding its way to words…all of it travels through and lights up my body. I can feel the goodness of my own HUM in my chest.
Filling myself up with my own song softens up and opens up the edges of my space. More than this, having my song arise from my body acted as a reminder. It was its own little awakening tool reminding me I have purpose. Not in the narrow…as in Bop! You’re to be a magnificent teacher!..but in the very specific sense that my being Here has a purpose in this place and time. Somehow inexplicably we are each piece and part of a grander picture. It was actually enough to experience this, to breathe this in. It relaxes the consternation. It feels like a promise. Even when the mind doesn’t understand how the puzzle pieces fit, its enough to know we are an essential piece of the puzzle. We already have belonging in the scheme of it all.
P.S. This article is about a recent science discovery on gravitational waves. It echoes the vibratory nature of my writing on Being the HUM you wish to see in the world.
P.P.S. Writing this tonight has brought me to the fact that there is a song singing me. And there is one singing you as well. Its so easy to forget.
with gratitude from the void.
Stay #heartwoke. To your exquisite unfolding.
With you in the bowing, the humming, the listening, and the daily prayer of living in these times.