Monday, August 15, 2022

Staying close to home / Always something new to hear / Always something new



When my mind churns up old thoughts that interrupt the joy I feel walking in the woods, I say to my mind, "Tell me something I haven't heard before."

My mind becomes quiet.  It has nothing new to say.  The sounds all around me become exquisitely clear.

This works under all circumstances (-:

*

Something made me wonder if I had posted something like this before, and I found this poem I wrote nearly 20 years ago after a group sitting meditation in a local meditation hall and posted here in 2015.  

POEM ABOUT SOMEONE AND SOMETHING NEW

Someone breathing
Someone not alone
Someone walking lonely paths
Someone leaving lonely shelters
Someone finding a lonely ocean

Someone feeling Something New
Thousands of tiny hearts
Within the left side of Someone
Someone's right side perfectly empty
Someone's emptiness graceful as sky
Thousands of tiny hearts
Filling half the emptiness
Something loving the emptiness
Emptiness loving Something
Yes and No becoming simple again
Something New becoming emptiness
Emptiness becoming Something New

Something New and emptiness finding Someone
Someone finding the seasons of a lonely path
Someone finding shelter from a lonely storm
Someone finding a lonely ocean

With Someone sleeping, there was still Something New
Still the emptiness, still a path,
Still a shelter, still an ocean.

And Someone waking up
Feeling sacred hearts everywhere
On paths in and out of time
In shelters from a lonely storm
By the lonely and beloved ocean

Hearts bearing sacred cushions
Of loneliness, emptiness, 
                                               And Something New.

6 comments:

NewRobin13 said...

I so love what you say to your mind, "Tell me something I haven't heard before." That is something I will try to remember to say to myself. Thank you for that. I love the poem too.

Barbara Rogers said...

Ditto what Robin said...talking to my mind hadn't occurred to me though I talk to myself quite often. Good thoughts!

Joared said...

Clearing our mind to hear only nature's sounds around us can be challenging. Thoughts about aloneness in your poem very striking.

Colette said...

I envy you your calm.

Sabine said...

That is similar to what goes on in my mind when I cycle along the river, the same stretch day after day, most days, when only the light and the weather differs. My mind goers blank most days, into a blank state that is very calming.

beth coyote said...

totally in line with your thoughts. wondering about getting my body composted...

i've got kids but want to give them little to do.

Like my parents. My mother left a folder, that's it. what to do with her body-to science. all monies divided 5 ways. And that was all. Very neat. and compassionate.