Poetry

I wrote You Who Lives; A Self-Judging Being in 2021. It sits inside the pages of, After Breast Cancer: A Recovery Handbook by my dear friend Sara Liyanage 

You, who lives; a self-judging being,

You, who has lived through so much unseen.

You, who listens to your thoughts and lets them dwell

In your heart, yet they don’t feed or serve you well.

Our breath is there to soothe like a balm,

In quiet and loud times, helping calm.

Step back from the judgement of your inner thought

Watch it pass on by noticing how it sought

To make you believe you aren’t enough,

Making you feel small when life gets tough.

Open your wings and let them gently unfurl,

That thought isn’t you, with its stealthy swirl.

Pause, just notice its presence, and then

With your next breath out, simply watch it when,

It passes on by, with permission from you

Making room for self–growth, for you to renew,

Yourself, each breath, each moment, again,

Start over, climb off the judgement train.

You, in every part of your beautiful soul

Has the strength to face all emotional toll.

Breathe in, breath out; don’t make it a fight.

Let judgement subside, feeling the light,

You, here and now, the breath breathing all of you

Over and over, each moment begins new.

Developing our ability to be a good listener is an important part of mindful living; perhaps we could all benefit from listening more closely.

All the words tumbled from his mouth but I heard nothing.

The conversation in my mind was much more pressing.

‘’What did you say?’’ I asked him without interest.

“I said, ‘Are you really listening, dearest?’

The lyrics are playing; I don’t hear one word.

My thoughts have their own song and that’s what I heard.

My ears look open but are shut tight to the world.

Their design lets your old tune sit there uncurled.

I wonder what would it be like to really listen?

Would the world look shinier, with a brighter glisten?

Would the birds and their chattering make much more sense?

Would the world feel less superficial, perhaps more dense?

Would the texture, hue, and tone of spoken words

Tell me what is already well known to birds,

That our words and their song have so much to tell,

But we’ll only hear if we listen well.

There’s a well known mindfulness expression, ‘what we resist persists’.

The poem below reminds me to let go of resistance.

When we block and push away the experience of our pain

We can find ourselves drowning in a sea of emotional rain

But if we lean into our difficulty, our mind becomes less fraught

When we let go of resistance, things can feel less taut.

Gently and with kindness, we can show ourselves self-care

The art of mindful living provides a coat for us all to wear.

One that’s richly patterned with the acknowledgement of our life;

More calm moments with self-love and free from strife.