How are you? No, truly, how are you?
It’s a quirky time and what I’ve noticed more and more is that instead of the automatic response of, ‘fine’ to the question, ‘How are you’, there is a pause whether it be via text, during a phone conversation, or in person, that is followed by some honest to goodness sharing. It feels like a time where strength is being redefined as the ability to be both vulnerable and resilient at the same time. We cannot think to heal if we cannot feel.
The world and all of its happenings feels heavy. It’s more than any one person should feel that they must shoulder alone. On this day, feeling completely overwhelmed, I laced up my sneakers and walked through and by the woods hearing the sounds of hundred of grackles, chickadees and blackbirds communicating with one another. Their chatter warns one another of danger, safety and upcoming flight.
As I walked the forest floor and followed the edge of one of the many ponds near me, I felt the array of colors pouring into me from above as I breathed in the scent of pine needles being mashed underneath my feet. Each step felt like a conversation where my weary body shared its weight with the world around me and in kind, the birds and trees cawed and rustled their response. As I stood at the edge of the pond I felt the wind hold my sadness as the bright sunlight wove its magical writing into my skin.
Wherever you may be and no matter if you are alone or surrounded by a sea of people, remember to not only ask yourself or others how you or they are, but also pause to listen to the answer. It may fill you more than you thought you needed.
With Love,
Your Friends at TYC
“When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.”
-Wendell Berry