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Posts Tagged ‘letting go’

After Talking to My Teacher, I See the Invitation

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on July 12, 2019| 1 Comment »

 

 

What wants to happen?

            —Joi Sharp

 

 

Today it is the tow truck

that leads me back to myself.

For though I call the driver

and though I receive

a text that says he is coming

and though I have paid

my AAA bill on time, the tow

truck does not arrive.

Though I did everything right.

Though the same actions have worked before.

Still the world has not turned out

the way I expected, the way

I want it to. The car

is still stranded. The tow truck

is still not here. Oh failure,

how clearly it shows my attachment

to outcome. How clearly it

shows me the world is in charge.

I look for more doors to knock on,

try to plan more ways to control.

Meanwhile, I am the door.

Meanwhile, this chance

to let go.

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The Blizzard Reminds Me

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on March 21, 2019| Leave a Comment »

 

 

The way the spruce tree

holds the wet snow—how

 

in a blizzard its branches

will bend and bend

 

and bend until they release—

that is the way I want to love you,

 

want to trust that I can hold

the weight of you as you fall,

 

as you continue to fall,

hold you until it seems I will break

 

and then, just when I’m sure

I can’t take any more,

 

release you back into yourself—

not in anger, not in fear,

 

not with guilt—release you

with green resilience

 

so that come the next storm

I am prepared

 

to catch you again, again,

and let you go.

 

 

 

 

 

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After Being Given the Assignment to Forgive

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on February 26, 2019| 8 Comments »

 

 

 

It took five days, but at last I thought of you, old friend,

friend I loved and wanted to trust, friend

 

who burned every bridge I tried to build between us,

who turned gratitude and apology to smoke, to ash,

 

who taught me that love is not enough—a lesson

I never wanted to learn, which is why I am grateful

 

you helped me to learn it.

No one gets through life without injury.

 

Still, I wanted to believe that a kiss and forgiveness

could make things better, but some things

 

are better left broken. Thank you for teaching me

that all passes, that even without a road, without

 

a bridge, without a track, the train of time

finds a way to keep moving, eventually

 

speeding by so fast that what seemed

unable to be overcome becomes a blur

 

and that hope gives way to something even

more beautiful: saying yes to what is real.

 

So though you will never know it, I forgive you

for your scissored words and sharpened

 

silences. I forgive you for giving up on love,

for saying no, goodbye. It takes almost no effort now.

 

Even uranium has a half-life—albeit 4.5 billion years.

How much sooner forgiveness has come. More like a lawn

 

that went unwatered and dried to brown, to dust,

but then when seasonal rains returned, turned green.

 

Yes, thriving and lush, here is the new lay of the land,

ready for anyone to arrive. Anyone. Even you.

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How to Let Go of Being Right (When You’re Sure You’re Right, But So Is The Other Person)

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on November 8, 2018| Leave a Comment »

 

As summer leans into the fall,

as sunflowers that lose all

their petals—though it takes

some time. As rhyme

 

that slips toward normal speech.

As evening drifting toward the night.

And when you’re really sure

you’re right, let go as snow evaporates,

 

as puddles dry, as clouds

disperse, as waves unwave,

as light rehearses shadow.

And if you’re still sold

 

you are right, then practice

quietude. Like dirt. Like

bark. Like pearl. Like grass.

Like the moon, so dark, so new.

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Without A Map

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on September 7, 2018| Leave a Comment »

 

 

Silly me, I thought the boat was empty.

Thought there was no one else here to paddle

or steer. Thought I was alone and too small

to reach the rudder, too weak to lift

the great oars, somehow not seeing

the sea itself as captain, the sea itself as crew,

its waves carrying me places I never knew I needed

to go until, on that strange new shore, I found

myself exactly where I needed to be,

shipwrecked and wildly alive.

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One More Chapter in Letting Go

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on June 24, 2018| 1 Comment »

 

 

 

Today it slipped into my daughter,

the seed that all is not right in the world.

 

In a matter of hours, already

the tap roots had grown beyond

 

my ability to pull them out.

I wonder if I have been wrong

 

to keep her garden so tidy.

I wonder how to best teach her

 

to tend her own rows.

It will be endless now,

 

the onslaught, as every gardener knows.

And there is some pleasure in tending.

 

I think of how I would rather

be aware of all that grows.

 

I think of how sometimes

we change our minds

 

about what is wanted

and what is a weed.

 

Some part of me longs

to swing the sun back to yesterday.

 

Some part of me rejoices

that now all the world

 

is her garden.

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One on the Ride Home

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on May 20, 2018| 1 Comment »

 

 

 

after the curtain call

the mind still rehearsing

how to shine

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One More Layer

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on May 19, 2018| Leave a Comment »

 

 

 

after shedding all these skins

still saying to the cherry blossom

teach me how to let go

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Praise Song in January

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on January 21, 2018| Leave a Comment »

 

 

 

Praise the tree as we throw

its branches into the fire,

the needles once green

now brilliant, now ash,

and praise the flames

that consume. Praise

the small hands that

toss the old boughs

and the squeals as the blaze

blazes higher. Praise

the empty space

in the room where all

we see is absence

of tree. Praise the darkness—

that canvas for light

that invites us

to find in ourselves

something to burn.

It’s a cold world.

What are we willing

to offer?

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One Lament

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on October 17, 2017| 3 Comments »

 

 

 

In the ragged purr of the cat

in my lap I hear all the sun

she has yet to curl into,

all the mice she has yet

to chase, all the days

we don’t have left.

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