#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream
My morning meditation. Photo by Liz Sheehan
Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. . .
~ Excerpt from “Live the Questions Now,” From Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke Translated by Stephen Mitchell
After my meditation on the dock I saw that I had received a text msg. My friend Liz took this picture of me while I was meditating. Sweet to see myself observed in this mindfulness moment. I woke very early to take Charlie out first. He lingered in sleep. I thought I would bike early and return for him. But just as I was about to mount my bike in the driveway, I heard his insistent bark at me. So, we walked to the foggy river, and Suzi came, and I was glad. I haven’t seen the lovely restful waking up river in fog in a while. Then, I biked the long way to Liz’s in the quiet morning, with plenty of energy and lots of gratitude. It was cool in the air, but the water was warm for my swim. I thought about my morning poetry workshop and the poem I had sent ahead to work on. I wanted to switch it all of a sudden. But that’s not done. The poem is one I drafted two days ago; a mashup of four short poems I wrote a couple of years ago that weren’t working on their own. Three of the four had been inspired by my daily blog, had started here. I had an inspiration to put them together, and so I did. But I couldn’t tell if they were working this way. I titled it: After fruits ripen in woods. I’m glad, after all, that I couldn’t switch the poems, and this one was happily surprised to find that this new mashup poem was very well received. Working. Relief, and gratitude. In the afternoon, I had the energy to make a small tweak to the poem I revised and workshopped yesterday. And then I went into the poems from the letters and wrote three of them. In the late afternoon, Frank finished early and we went back to the dock for an afternoon snack and swim with our friend. My daughter and I in the evening had a long and fruitful talk, continuing the conversation from last night. Her cheerfulness, for months now, has been a true delight and joy to share in.
