Version 1.2; July 19, 2010
(C) 2010 Howard McQueen
My anger has again hurt someone I love,
and they have chosen to feel sadness and anger.
Now I cave in again, trying my best to avoid their sadness,
secretly not wanting to know it as my own.
"Please don't let us go to sleep so deeply saddened".
To this plea, I stop avoiding the my partner's sadness,
the same sadness I still carry within.
And as I lean into and meet this sadness,
a connectedness and vitaility returns,
a softness and tenderness is uncovered within,
and the harsh hardness is swept aside.
We store our toxic memories,
and when we are connected in compassion with others,
and stand up to what we fear,
all the medicine we need
to neutralize our toxic baggage
is available,
is readily offered,
through our willingness to
remain
connected,
to keep relationship - flowing.
****
This poem speaks to the ability to self-integrate, to uncover a wholeness by facing that which we have turned away from. In so many ways, for so many years, we have dis-empowered ourselves by perpetuating the fear, caving in to the discomforts we have lodged in our beliefs, in our imagination. We can honor that which we fear by leaning into it and learning, from direct experience, a deeper truth covered over by our fear.
This poem speaks to the ability to self-integrate, to uncover a wholeness by facing that which we have turned away from. In so many ways, for so many years, we have dis-empowered ourselves by perpetuating the fear, caving in to the discomforts we have lodged in our beliefs, in our imagination. We can honor that which we fear by leaning into it and learning, from direct experience, a deeper truth covered over by our fear.
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