and again, we are here…
and I find myself grappling with
how to not be consumed by the world
with the loud and the hostile
inhospitable, selfish and cruel
with the power hungry and the greed
with the sweep it under the rug and the walk upon
with the how many of us have been hurt, by the how many
of you
with the right to speak up and the unwillingness
to listen
and when the time comes when you have chosen or may have been forced
to tell your own story
whom do you speak of or
to
with the rights and the wrongs
and the wrong
and
the
wrong…
when a ground swell of solidarity starts to gather you in
and you feel empowered and angry
solid and strong
but then also
kind of
sad
and again we are here
grappling with
how not to be consumed…
by the world
then, a message from friend
in need of real strength
stops time and all circumstance
(and I go inside)
while I sit to read, my husband swears, and I
somehow develop a nasty crick in my neck
not even sure where it came from
this nagging
pain
pulled muscle from work? slept awkward on my pillow?
or, I think to myself, perhaps now
I am holding
someone else’s pain
not as a detriment to me, but more
in a helpless sort of effort to relieve
you…
and again we are here
grappling…
in an effort to not be consumed
by things beyond my control
all I have
is a return to love
to loving kindness
and so I begin,
May you be happy
May you be healthy
May you be safe and at ease
May love and kindness surround you and keep you
May you be well
we’re standing outside under a vast blue sky
the sun starts to warm my shoulders
my husband bends to pull at a weed, and I say to him,
“You can’t have a crick in your neck and look up at the sky”
“Yup, he says with a smirk, that’s what you always say..”
from my heart to you,
May you be well ♥