4/19/2014

Paying some attention to what I take for granted

17



Lie Down


Lie down with your belly to the ground,
like an old dog in the sun.  Smell
the greenness of the cloverleaf, feel the damp
earth through your clothes, let an ant
wander the uncharted territory
of your skin.  Lie down
with your belly to the ground.  Melt into
the earth's contours like a harmless snake.
All else is mere bravado.
Let your mind resolve itself
in a tangle of grass.
Lie down with your belly
to the ground, flat out, on ground level.
Prostrate yourself before the soil
you will someday enter.
Stop doing.
Stop judging, fearing, trying.
This is not dying, but the way to live
in a world of change and gravity.
Let go.  Let your burdens drop.
Let your grief-charge bleed off
into the ground.
Lie down with your belly to the ground
and then rise up
with the earth still in you.


~ by Nancy Paddock, from Trust the Wild Heart ~



: : :


I've put a pot on the boil today, some cloth filled with leaves & twigs
and handfuls of weeds.  As I yanked those weeds from the spots they didn't belong
[didn't belong only because I said so ... they were quite happy]
the intense smell of damp earth surrounded me;  that dark brown smell,
the one that comes after a long hibernation
and for me only belongs to spring.
I thought about belonging.
I thought about what it means to get up every time.
How I first have to lie down before I can get up.
And then
I rolled all those thoughts into the cloth
with the leaves
the twigs
and the weeds.




17 comments:

  1. Happy Spring, Christie.
    The pure pleasure of creating Spirit Cloth.

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    Replies
    1. ... and to you, Carol. Pats on the noggins of your dear woofies, from me.
      Here's to spring !

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  2. I felt all these words deep into my bones and it felt great! Happy Spring!

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    Replies
    1. ahh, it was a bone thing for me, too, Blue Sky. Some days, just the right poem will come flying
      into my inbox and will sum up something that's been wiggling around in the brain vault [or heart valves]
      for awhile. This was one of those. Happy to know it was a similar feeling for you. Happy Spring to you, too.

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  3. Replies
    1. Face-to-face with some earth ... 'bout as clear as it gets for my ole heart, indi.

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  4. beautiful image text and thought

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  5. Beautiful thoughts, beautiful poem

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    Replies
    1. I just love that poem ... & thank you, Visibleu.

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  6. Lovely thoughts and image. Using that which surrounds us, even if it is called a 'weed', in our art is such a beautiful repurpose.

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    Replies
    1. With the amount of weeds I've got I could redefine "repurpose" in the dictionary!
      But all kidding aside, I agree, Penny - can be a beautiful thing ...

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  7. I've been feeling for a good poem all day and now I've found it.... or rather, you have. Thanks Christie.

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    Replies
    1. ... with great pleasure, giving to you, Robyn.

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  8. feeling this
    thank you for sharing

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  9. Lie down - let your mind resolve itself...
    Be still - let the waves break outside...

    Bundles still unwrapped? Curious to see what the weeds did.

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