Give yourself a moment sometime When the weather is warm And nothing is urgent And you are far from other humans Out of sight In the company of trees and wild beings Give yourself a moment Turn off your phone Set it aside Take off your shoes Your socks Your glasses Your clothes Yes, all of them Your jewelry Even your wedding ring Take off anything that you have put on Leaving only your animal being And then… Be in presence Feel the wind Feel the sun Press your body against trees Into meadow grass Or immerse in water Allow the bugs to crawl across you Without impulse to destroy Gaze into the canopy Or at the infinitely shifting clouds Or at the wondrous diversity beneath you Pay attention to birdsong Without needing to identify or classify the singer Notice the scents of earth and forest Pluck a ripe berry Or a fresh tip of spruce or fir Or a yarrow leaf And taste it Allow your body to lead Not your mind Move freely Following patterns of light and shadow Guided by a part of you That you may have forgotten Many years ago And then… When you feel ready And not a moment sooner Reassemble yourself Slowly Rings, clothing, shoes And wander reverently back into the familiar world Of roads and cars and houses and straight lines And notice what has changed What has awakened within.
Oh how this squeezed tears out of me. "even your wedding ring"..... "when you feel ready, and not a moment sooner".. the tenderness and true intimacy of this invitation. a sensuous call directly to soul. thank you so much for bringing this through to us.
There was a clear moment when I was wearing only my wedding ring and I felt a clear need to take it off, to tuck it into a little nest at the base of a tree, to be first and foremost a sovereign wild being, upon which I choose commitments and layers of identities.
Yes! I wonder if we would write poetry about such things if we had not grown soft through the ages...reawakening the animal is as natural as it is profound! Thank you for this poem.
Oh how this squeezed tears out of me. "even your wedding ring"..... "when you feel ready, and not a moment sooner".. the tenderness and true intimacy of this invitation. a sensuous call directly to soul. thank you so much for bringing this through to us.
and happy birthday, royal solstice one!!
Thank you Kate!
There was a clear moment when I was wearing only my wedding ring and I felt a clear need to take it off, to tuck it into a little nest at the base of a tree, to be first and foremost a sovereign wild being, upon which I choose commitments and layers of identities.
Yes! I wonder if we would write poetry about such things if we had not grown soft through the ages...reawakening the animal is as natural as it is profound! Thank you for this poem.
To wake up to the animal body is a journey to be savoured... :)
Thank you.