This morning
as my eyes blink
open
it occurs to me
as if for the first time
what you, miracle body, have been up to
All night long, while I let go
you pumped blood through veins
to fingertips and toes
grew cells and eyelashes and nails
inhaled and exhaled
countless times
all this while the sun
tirelessly
birthed new
life
all this without a thought or a word
or a worry
without a drop of help
from me
I laugh when I remember
that just yesterday in a torrent
of heart-numbing
stories
I seriously thought
I
needed to do something
by Julia Fehrenbacher
Does this sound familiar, this belief that everything depends on me, that I need to make things happen, almost as if the world would stop turning if I didn’t keep running on the treadmill? I love the surprise and laughter in the poet Julia Fehrenbacher‘s poem-voice, catching herself on it. Of course there’s a time and a place for doing, for initiating this and putting a stop to that. But it seems to me that many of us, myself very much included, could do with a little more reverence for and surrender to that which is happening without my involvement. The miraculous workings of the body, of nature, of others with their own resourcefulness and wholeness… and in practice, the moment-by-moment unfolding of our experience.
Can I let go a little more? Can I actually rest in the midst of what is here, without grasping at some of it and pushing the rest away?
Resting with what’s present in practice, wise effort in daily life. How about that for a daily intention!
PS if you’d like to practice a life of more ease and joy, join us in this journey of discovery starting with an in-depth course in mindfulness…
Photo by Tyler Casey on Unsplash