We are built to make mistakes, coded for error.
—Lewis Thomas
And thank god for mistakes,
our inherent inclination to not do
what we’re supposed to. It’s cellular,
they say. Biological. Evolutionary.
Just two nights ago, my back erred.
Stopped working. Would not stand straight.
Would not sit. No walking. No bending.
No lifting. No twisting. You lay down,
it said. You don’t move. And so for two days,
I’ve watched the sky out the window.
I’ve watched the wall be a wall. I’ve
marveled at the body, how it changes
from go to no in an instant. How
a simple mistake—a lunge to the side—
didn’t seem like a mistake at the time.
And yet, because of it, rest. Because of it,
a quieting. A welcome nothing. The occasion
to know healing. The firm invitation
to learn to say no. How difficult times
help us grow. How mistakes become
game changers, chances for transformation,
the summons to wonder, What am I doing
here anyway? Why am I really here? And
the bravest part of the self steps in to answer.
- Dear Friends, I have been literally flat on my back for several days, and I was utterly unable to write poems. Or do anything, for that matter. It was so humbling. Amazing, really, to be so incapacitated! And I am feeling much better. Your regularly scheduled daily poems should return now …
Your poems are part of my day, every day I look forward to the read. Thank you! Glad you’re on the mend.
I’m glad you’re feeling better 🙂
Jesska, thank you! It was a humbling and wild experience!
Well I always knew that all of life is grist to the mill of a poet, and you have taken this to a new level.
ha! Well, yes, Rachel, I guess it is true! I have never been literally unable to write a poem before! I learned a lot from it!
Sending you healing hugs and continued insights! Ouch!!! Thanks for sharing your journey! Love “ the chance to know healing!”
Love and Namasté my friend
May you be well in every way.
Augusta, wow, it was quite something! And yes, the chance to know healing has been profound! I have learned so much!
So glad you are feeling better Rosemerry – and I agree with Rachel 🙂
thanks, Jan, I am so glad to be feeling better, too! Finally today, nearly a week later, I feel almost normal!
Oh goodness – so glad you are better and thank you for sharing your pain with us!
Thank you! It has been quite a learning experience! Such an exercise in humility and compassion and the miracle of the body!
Guidance shows up in unpredictable and often unwanted guises … I do think most of us require a shove to simply sit or lie still for an extended period of time – to receive perceptions we would otherwise miss. Very glad you are feeling better – and grateful you wrote this poem. A recent tumble in my driveway is now making sense in a new way. (Guidance showing up as a Rosemerry poem!)
Yikes about the driveway tumble! And here’s to healing and all its strange gifts. Wishing you health and good feeling, dear Jazz,
r