DOLDRUMS..

A BLESSING

Don't try so hard.

It comes in a shiver sometimes,

Sometimes in a winter windowpane,

Wild with the unseeable,

Frozen there in ice:

The shapes above clouds,

The score and the libretto of wind,

The plot of waves.

Don't try so hard.

Sometimes it falls,

A flake at a time

Into your life while you're asleep.

Sometimes it comes as a winter

Blankness,

Waiting for a storm, or ice, or thaw,

Or even wind,

And then the still air groans,

And the trees crack,

And the swamp shudders,

And the woods thrill.

Sometimes it comes when you least

Expect it.

And sometimes it doesn't.

Quiet, still, no voice (even small),

No whirlwind, no reply; no burning.

Just a bare winter bush.

This is God, too.

The space between stars,

Where noise goes to die.

And the space between atoms,

Where the charges thin out;

These are places, too.

The moment in the movement of the soul

When it all seems to stop,

Seized up.

This is true, too.

Ice is, also.

And dormancy.

And I don't mean the stirring

Of seeds beneath the snow,

But the place between

And the moment before.

And I don't mean a lightening bolt,

But what it passes through.

I don't mean a dream,

But a dumb sleep.

"Not a thing" is something.

After the end,

And before the beginning

Is time, too.

Let it alone, don't try so hard.

This is God, too.

All of you is.

-Stephen Philbrick

I love this. I received this poem carefully handwritten in a beautiful leather journal adorned with Leonardo DaVinci drawings of horses on the cover. It was a Christmas gift from my dear friend BratB and it absolutely speaks to me.

I used to have a cat named Piper. The thing about Piper was he could never quite get to that "happy place". If he was inside he meowed to go out. If he was outside he wanted back in. We used to joke that only in the actual passing through the doorway could he find happiness! What...Was inside too boring? Too predictable with the same old spaces and faces? He seemed to find outside scary though, with other cats, cars, dogs and who knows what else lurking. Poor Piper!

I think often we tend to think that the "outside"- the exciting- feeling so alive- going for it all times are the good times, and that the "inside"- the routine- lonely- on the hamster wheel- left to our own devices times are the bad times or the somehow "less than" times. I think both are important and are in fact, a balance for each other. This is from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. It's about the dichotomy that exists between joy and sorrow but I think the thought works just as well if you substitute the "outside" and "inside" theme...

Some of you say, "Joy is greater than sorrow," and others say, "Nay, sorrow is the greater."

But I say unto you, they are inseparable.

Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember the other is asleep upon your bed.

When our lives feel too boring and too predictable, when there's nothing "going on", these are important times too. Though overlooked by today's society ..... space, time, introspection, and occasional dormancy are necessary to our mental and spiritual health. I believe these are the best paths to knowing and understanding ourselves. And self awareness is so important to keeping on the right track when life does (inevitably) speed back up; when we find ourselves, for better or worse, back on the roller coaster. As for the roller coaster times, when they DO come, I say DON'T keep your hands and feet inside the car; throw them in the air like you just don't care! Just make sure the lap bar is fastened! :) Love, RED