Poetic Revelations: Moving Lightly

Mourning, Knowing and Poetry

Nov 15, 2024

"We want to become lighter, not stronger." ~ Monisha Mittal

Because Human-ing is harder than Adulting. This is a weekly publication for heart-centered warriors, swimming through this thing called Life.

Selected Readings:

After the Bomb, Mark Nepo
Man in Space, Billy Collins
A Poem, Frances Patchett (see next page)

Dear Embodied Hearts and Dancing Souls,

This is not going to be like other writings. Read the poems.

Macrocosms and Microcosms. Many of us are processing the results of the American election in our own way. It has been a Time. We are each having a response to the way our American macrocosm unfolded. At least, our elections were fair. And: my response to this macrocosm is informed by the realties of my own experience—my microcosm of misogyny. I feel I have been blustering about, flat on my back, yet pretending to remember how to walk. Ouch.

My macrocosm and microcosm are tied together through me, the alive Creator that I am. I have repeatedly turned to my angels this week. As I flood with Grace, they tell me, “have courage, hang in there, there’s a reason?!”

Mourning and Poetry. I, you, must take time to allow this reality to seep in. We are human. It is simply a time to mourn. I attended a safe space at my meditation center where everyone simply shared the impact the election was having on them. I was touched by one woman’s response who found respite by writing a poem. Please check it out on the next page, especially the last 2 lines. They took my breath away. It is a sentiment I was feeling, without realizing it. I thank her for reflecting some essential pieces of my insides in this moment. I am curious how it lands for you. Thank you Fran for sharing with this readership!

Emergence. I become unmoored. Right is no longer right. My orientation is getting blurry and muddled. This destruction is like an eraser blurring out the reality I had either known or erected for myself. (which feels scary, right?!) From my own faith, I know:

Destruction begets emergence.

Something new will spring up. Its the natural cycle of our Hindu trinity: Birth, Life, Death. But what new? and how? I worry about the harm caused during the destruction.

Moving to the Center. There are many forces at play here, bigger than me or you. Yet, the new reality must make room for each of us. The wisdom that came to me for this newsletter is that, when we move to our own center, this new reality gets based on our individual truths. Your center is where the truth of your unique Being lives. I notice the beautiful symmetry of this invitation…again, our inner journey is mirroring the outer. As the country seeks to find a new center, we are invited to step more into our own.

Share The (tiny) Voice of Big Love

A shift to our Center is a shift to standing in our Knowing. We align with our real Power when we align with our truth. I noticed this shift this year. In my center, I have a clearer boundary between what’s mine and what’s not. I am aware of people, pets and situations at my edges, more aware of when to speak or not, what to say or ask for and when. It makes the world less threatening. I am called to stand up my center in the new name of my business:

Logo for Monisha’s business: The Center for Somatic Leadership and Communication.

Like the Nepo poem above suggests, I am still here, breathing, choosing. Right now, I cross unspoken boundaries in the places I exist: family threads, at the gym, in someone’s FB post. But without poking or bruising others with my words. I speak words I can stand by. I love this writing by activist Howard Zinn:

If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.

And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future.

The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.

Yeah, it’s tricky. The tricky bit is realizing we are each centers dancing with each other (hence, The Dancing Center). In truth, no one is a victim. Everyone has choice. The blowhard, the oppressed, everyone. There is a real invitation to lose our judgements of each other on the vote. Even as the mysogny, racism, and misuse of power become clear. Its crazy that from the perspective of Big Love, all the judgements are the same, whether its from the right or the left. Ultimately I’m learning, our compassion requires a certain dispassion for us to stay whole and rooted.

Power and Lightness. I struggle with this, but the deeper invitation from the center of your power is to release judgements and to make choices that lift You Up. This is how we operate with our etheric energy system. This is how we expand and let more in. There is a lightness in our center; it has a different relationship with Power.

"Angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly.” ~ G.K. Chesterton

After 6 years of cumulative InterPlay, I take myself more lightly. Now, I am just as interested in taking my armour off as I’ve been putting in on. This is important because a) I don’t want to be more strong. I am strong enough. b) I want to feel relaxed in my power and c) in turn, I see other people more lightly too. Lightening up is relaxing into the unseen forces that lift me up, body, heart and mind. Its another level of how dancing as a human in a body.

Poetic Revelations: Moving Lightly

Mourning, Knowing and Poetry

Dear Embodied Hearts and Dancing Souls,

Discussion about this post