a soft place
There is nothing too good to be true. Nothing can be withheld by those who persevere.
– j. j. Dewey
There is the question
of bearing witness, of being yourself seen
by yourself, & seen clearly, cleanly,
without weapon or bible in hand;
as this was the wish,
the sturdy & not-so-secret wish
of those who named us—
our parents wanted us to be
known to ourselves without confusion:
without judgment,
sans suffering. Never force it,
they said, always find it.
OK, strictly speaking, that’s not entirely true.
My particular, sole, insistent, moody mother & father
probably never thought much about it at all.
Those two anxious citizens,
they were never exemplars of patience.
The weightlessness of detachment & acceptance
as I think of it now
would have frightened them—
for good reason.
If you could see these words
I’m speaking to you tonight printed on a page
as typeface & magnified x 500
you would feel just how ragged & coarse
they really are, heavy.
Well, playing the part of a butterfly
must be tiring, right?
I’m happier being the old ox, right?
On some plane of existence
these two scraps are all my news:
where the mess is
that’s where my heart is.
❤️💔❤️
Strictly Speaking by David Rivard
Sometimes, I write something that becomes more true for me with time. The last few days I’ve been unable to walk more than a few steps (happily my apartment is small enough that that gets me where I need to go 🙂 ) Most of the pain is in my back- which is unusual for me, and this piece made me wonder: What am I carrying that could be set down at the side of the road? Sometimes we carry things- old hurts or responsibilities- out of habit. We’ve forgotten we’re carrying them. They’ve started to feel like part of our being. But they aren’t- and maybe, sometimes, pain in the body can remind us of what we are carrying that no longer serves us or helps us offer who we are to the world. Going to sit. . . .well, okay. . . maybe lie down on the floor with that today.
-Oriah
Blessed be… art series by Brianna Saussy
Everyone needs a witness – someone to testify you were really here and you really tried, someone to witness your wounds and believe in your worth, someone to say even your crazy can’t stop you from being crazy loved. Everyone needs a witness who will stand and not hold you back because if we all only lived safe, no one would ever get saved.
Everyone needs a witness — and I’ll be yours.
You don’t become a parent by bearing a child. You become a parent by bearing witness to their life.
I swallow hard and memorize them.
the witness willing to always bear the weight of all their glory.
– Ann Voskamp
photo sources found on pinterest/al513
life: acoustic & amplified 