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“Music cleanses the understanding; inspires it, and lifts it into a realm which it would not reach if it were left to itself.” ~ Henry Ward Beecher
Sometimes I cannot make sense of a single thing in this world. Sometimes the wisdom in poetry and music helps me sort it. And when it doesn’t, I can dance it.
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“The world is changed by your example, not your opinion.” ~ Paulo Coelho
Sometimes I feel angry with the world.
I feel enraged by how people in power actively work to ignore climate change. I feel furious with the systems and structures that people and corporations have put in place that intentionally harm marginalized people. I feel rage with politicians who sacrifice our democracy to keep their positions of influence. I feel infuriated at the selfish, shortsighted businessmen (gendered intentionally and while that’s probably not fair, oh well) and privileged people who use their power to tilt the world in their favor.
Sometimes the world absolutely pisses me off.
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At a New Year’s Eve party almost twenty years ago, my friend Kate Bennis gave me a song written by her friend, Dan Wilson. She thought it might be something I could use for my New Year’s Day class the next morning.
The song is What A Year For A New Year. And not only did I use it the next day, I use it in my New Year’s classes every. single. year.
And every single year, when I hear the line,
“Last one left us lying in a mess”
I always think, “Yeah this was a tough year, it’s just as well to be leaving it behind. Next year will surely be better.”
But when the next New Year’s classes roll around and that line comes up, once again I think, “Yep. This was a remarkably difficult one. Next year won’t go like this.”
After nearly two decades of listening to this song and thinking these same thoughts, this year I’m taking a different approach. This year, instead of dropping 2021 on the stinking garbage heap and running hopefully to 2022, I’m going to practice tonglen with it.
Tonglen is a Buddhist practice that Pema Chödrön describes as "...a method for connecting with suffering—ours and that which is all around us.... a method for overcoming fear of suffering and for dissolving the tightness of our heart."
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It’s how the light gets in…
In honor of the Winter Solstice, I’m letting three poets do a “guest post” for me this week. I’m grateful for David Whyte, Judy Brown and Leonard Cohen for reminding us about dark and light and fire and air and to forget our perfect offerings.
I’m grateful for Nature’s reminder to sink into the quiet of these days and I’m doing my best to heed it even as our culture tells us to artificially light every corner and sugar-coat every minute.
As our precious Earth tips back toward the sun, may you find the peace in the dark, the hope of the light, the air that feeds the fire, and celebrate the crack in everything.
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"One of the mighty illusions that is constructed in the dailiness of life in our culture is that all pain is a negation of worthiness, that the real chosen people, the real worthy people, are the people that are most free from pain." ~ bell hooks
In a recent newsletter, meditation teacher Sebene Selassie https://www.sebeneselassie.com/ writes candidly about her recent bout of cancer and the pain associated with her treatment. She recalled the bell hooks quote above and connected it to the distinction she makes between wellness and wellbeing. She writes,
Wellness focuses primarily on physical health while wellbeing encompasses a holistic alignment that is not contingent on our bodies being perfect or even pain-free. … Wellness is now called an “industry” and, in true industrial mode, success is sought. Eat/fast//breathe/meditate/buy your way to physical robustness!
This ableist cultural equation between physical health and worth is something I’ve observed both professionally and personally.
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