All of Us, Carrying Something - A Meditation
All of Us, Carrying Something - A Meditation
The moon, a snake, a bird, the world itself
All of us, carrying something today
All of us, great and small
Our pain, our secret loss, our loneliness
Carried under an injured wing on the wind at night
The surprise phone call that can change your life
The moment in the mirror when your body
Feels like a traitor, like an adversary
Violence and damage, unmistakable by other names - suffering done to each other and ourselves
and
There is also joy - like green shoots breaking through the winter ground
Like warm air rushing in currents up sunlit streets in front
of your third floor walk-up apartment on a Saturday morning
Our love made real through actions and intentions and eye contact and a living room filled with music and bare feet dancing on wood floors and wool rugs
Who will you be, amongst all this wind and sun,
amongst all these emotions, all happening at once
Who will you be, carrying so much,
Like so many bags carried home after the grocery store
Like so many push notifications in a world spinning hastily
Like so many pieces of oak carried from the wood pile to the house
Who will you be on this day that also holds peace somewhere within it
On this day also capable of joy, or reprieve or rest
Like an egg in a nest
Like the moon amongst the night sky
Like clay shaped into form by your hand
The moon, a snake, a bird, the world itself
All of us, carrying something today
All of us, great and small
What is it, who is it, and where and why and how
All of us, carrying something today
All of us, great and small
Today as you navigate your life,
May you be aware of what you’re carrying
May you feel capable of distributing the weight,
shedding the weight, sharing the weight
May you put down what needs to be put down,
or pick up what you have been reaching for,
or
May you simply hold what you have,
acknowledge its presence, and dwell deeply with it today
