Because

So I can’t save the world —
can’t save even myself,
can’t wrap my arms around
every frightened child can’t
foster peace among nations,
can’t bring love to all who
feel unlovable.

So I practice opening my heart
right here in this room and being gentle
with my insufficiency. I practice
walking down the street heart first.
And if it is insufficient to share love,
I will practice loving anyway.

I want to converse about truth,
about trust. I want to invite compassion
into every interaction.

One willing heart can’t stop a war.
One willing heart can’t feed all the hungry.
And sometimes, daunted by a task too big,
I tell myself, what’s the use of trying?

But today, the invitation is clear:
to be ridiculously courageous in love.
To open the heart like a lilac in May,
knowing freeze is possible
and opening anyway.

To take love seriously.
To give love wildly.
To race up to the world
as if I were a puppy,
adoring and unjaded,
stumbling on my own exuberance.

To feel the shock of indifference,
of anger, of cruelty, of fear,
and stay open. To love as if it matters,
as if the world depends on it.

-Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer-

Remembering to Exhale 

There are times when I am inhaling life
Breathing in – earning, eating, achieving, learning, talking
And forgetting to exhale
Breathing out – giving, exercising, sharing, observing

My muscles work to expand the lungs –inhale
They must relax to allow the carbon dioxide back out – exhale

In the doing, I use my muscles and break them down a little
In the resting, my muscles rejuvenate and get a little stronger
Thousands, millions of repetitions – the muscles do and rest.

My mind inhales – new thoughts, ideas, emotions, mistakes
It gets tired, used, worn down through the inhalation
And it needs to breathe out –reflect, grow, observe, rejuvenate
As it exhales, it gets ready for the next inhalation
Thousands, millions of times my mind goes through this cycle, beginning again

I forget to exhale sometimes – too busy, too ambitious, too…whatever
Like asthma of the brain, I haven’t let my mind exhale
But it is in the exhale, the space between the notes of life
That my body, my mind, my spirit grow, mature, strengthen

It’s more than OK to let my mind exhale, rest, observe – to be ready to begin again.

-Mark Luehmann-

Clearing

Do not try to save
the whole world
or do anything grandiose.

Instead, create
a clearing
in the dense forest
of your life
and wait there
patiently,

until the song
that is your life
falls into your own cupped hands
and you recognize and greet it.

Only then will you know
how to give yourself
to this world
so worthy of rescue.

-Martha Postlewaite-