The costumes or masks we wear may hide or may reveal something about our true natures: How much more we have in common than we are different.
“…So many stories, voices longing
to be heard, lives to be witnessed,
searching for meaning, satisfaction, happiness…
just like all of us.”
Poem 25, “Plea for Tolerance” from Thrown Again into the Frazzle Machine: Poems of Grace, Hope, and Healing. Listen here: https://youtu.be/O3cC9Jhz7CU
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Datura Unopened, Copyright 2008 by MD Mikus,
From “Melting,” from my book, Thrown Again into the Frazzle Machine: Poems of Grace, Hope, and Healing.
“…This puddle of you,
this chrysalis,
this butterfly in the making,
in transition,
that familiar rough patch
neither here nor there….”
Although I wrote this poem in 2009, under quite different circumstances, I am again in that place right now. You?
Listen here to poem 24: https://youtu.be/ahlWyKgPyi4
This poem seems written for these times.
We are in the throes of transformation. What we make of it, in co-creation, has yet to come. As Clarissa Pinkola Estes recently wrote: “We Were Made for These Times.” It is clear we must awaken and be alert, acting from our highest intention. Do not lose hope, transitions are always messy and chaotic. Hang in there and take good care. You are not alone.
“…if everything stayed perfectly fine,
would I still pay attention?”
Poem 23, “Not Easy,” from “Thrown Again into the Frazzle Machine: Poems of Grace, Hope, and Healing.” Listen here: https://youtu.be/X9-uCvpLB38
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Listen to this hopeful poem (#22) “From Mary Jane D. and Stephenie Meyer,” from my book, Thrown Again into the Frazzle Machine: Poems of Grace, Hope, and Healing: https://youtu.be/STLSztazYAs
I never know where inspiration will come from, and how different threads will weave together. In the title to this poem, Mary Jane refers to a woman I met through remodeling our home and Stephenie Meyer is the author of the very popular, Twilight book series. She also did a series of interviews about her writing process that were very helpful to me. The guys mentioned in the subtitle were in a social-spiritual group I belonged to and were the direct inspiration for this topic: change that seems catastrophic, shaking the foundations of the life you had built up to that time.
“…the details
don’t matter:
a choice point where
all is divided into
before…and after…”
In my healing work I had been repeatedly shaken up by new diagnoses or other dark circumstances so that I could not go back to my old life, I could only try to move forward into the unknown. I had to become better skilled at and trusting of change. In most or all cases, after time passed I could see how what had looked devastating ultimately had directed me to a better and more satisfying life path.
Has this ever happened to you or someone you know?
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Have you ever been discouraged by a problem you worked hard to solve, but it returned? In this part of the story I’m back to dealing with a new hernia, in this case caused by the previous surgeries. I consider the body making collagen (the primary structural protein in our connective tissue) to repair the new breach in my abdominal muscles.
And of course this is about healing at all levels, body, mind, emotions, and spirit—they are not separate. I ask: What might stand in the way of true, permanent healing? What misperceptions or misunderstandings…
“…If I am whole
will the writing stop,
will I cease to hear,
will I forget to pay attention?
What is the ancient deep-seated fear-kernel
of being vibrantly healthy?…”
Poem 21, “Collagen” from Thrown Again into the Frazzle Machine: Poems of Grace, Hope, and Healing. Listen here: https://youtu.be/nXsw2aArGEA
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