Let the Choir Sing
Finally starting to ink my new journal. The paper is so smooth, my fingertips linger over the page to take in its beauty. So beautiful that I am feeling the pressure to write what is fitting of its making. My pen moves slowly, etching every word with deliberation.
And the questions came:
If we are in contact with the beauty that we are, how will we be with ourselves? Will we abandon our truths and betray ourselves?
Let’s not be uptight. Yes. And let’s not be frivolous, too, with ourselves.
Let’s not give ourselves to everything, but “to this world so worthy of rescue.”
“Do not try to save the whole world or do anything grandiose.”
—Martha Postlethwaite, “The Clearing”
And what could this world be?
Pay attention to “a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own,” and leave the “bad advice” behind. It is not your responsibility to mend their lives.
Little by little, you will know, it is up to you.
Little by little, you will know, what you are determined to do.
“determined to do
the only thing you could do –
determined to save
the only life you could save.”—Mary Oliver, ‘The Journey”
But how, you ask.
“(I)
I’m telling the wrong lies,
they are not even useful.The right lies would at least
be keys, they would open the door.”—Margaret Atwood, “Hesitations Outside the Door”
Start by breathing.
“Make a place to sit down.
Sit down. Be quiet.
[…]
Breathe with unconditional breath
the unconditioned air.”—Wendell Berry, “How to Be a Poet”
Feel the space you are in.
Feel the You who fills the space.
“Feel the fullness of the emptiness, the vastness of the silence, the sheer life in your unproductive moments.
Time does not always need to be filled.”
—Jeff Foster, “Let Yourself Rest”
Be with nature.
“I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.”—Wendell Berry, “The Peace of Wild Things”
Little by little.
“Give up all the other worlds
except the one to which you belong.”—David Whyte, “Sweet Darkness”
No doubt it feels terrifying. Like you are left all alone, cut off from everyone and everything. Nothing to hold on to. And you’ll be okay.
“Let everything happen to you
Beauty and terror
Just keep going
No feeling is final”—Rainer Maria Rilke
Little by little, meet yourself with love.
“Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.”
—Rainer Maria Rilke
You will be okay. Others have gone and returned.
“Willing to experience aloneness,
I discover connection everywhere;
Turning to face my fear,
I meet the warrior who lives within;”—Jennifer Welwood, “Unconditional”
Touch the Earth and say, “Earth is the witness. She is my mother.”
“O my beloved,
touch Earth every time you get scared.
Touch her deeply,
and your sorrow will melt away.
Touch her deeply,
and you will touch the Deathless.”—Thich Nhat Hanh, “Bhumisparsha”
Little by little, admit to yourself the lies you tell to keep yourself away from home.
No one is keeping us away from home but us.
“(II)
That was a lie also,
I could go in if I wanted to.”—Margaret Atwood, “Hesitations Outside the Door”
What you’ve been longing for is right here.
“Inside of every failure, here you are.
Hidden in all searching, here you are.
In my every breath, here you are.”—Richard Wehrman, “Here You Are”
Little by little, you will come to know who and what is here.
“Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.”—John O’Donohue, “For A New Beginning”
You are this world.
Abandon yourself to this world!
“The true human adult gives everything for what cannot be lost.
Let’s dance the wild dance of no hope!”—Jennifer Welwood, “The Dakini Speaks”
Enjoy your own company.
“I want everything quiet and simple. For me: walking barefoot, sitting still, reading, listening to stories and now and then telling some myself. Eating fruit, drinking milk, longing to create, but with patience and many insights.”
—Rainer Maria Rilke
Little by little.
Let Death melt in loving light.
“From this ground of being, beauty—You—emerges.”
—Rosslyn Chay
New to The Dandelion Notes?
Hello & welcome — I am glad you are here. I am Rosslyn Chay, an inquirer, poet, and coach. The Dandelion Notes are field notes on my process and learnings through my human journey as I go on a quest to mend our fractured relationship with our nature.
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