Equinox and the geese are not being good, why should you

a real poem for once: You do not have to be good... the is Mary Oliver, who writes the real shit,, partly because she is out, deep in nature, every day, every day, deep, and she listens to the empty wisdom of the world

here is what she heard one day

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

~ Mary Oliver ~

My feelings: I love Mary Oliver.
I feel soft and free when I read this, as if someone understands.
I am weary of being good, even the being good of "not being good."
I am
Grateful, I have found my gang, in which the soft animal of my body can love what it loves, and the soft ocean of my heart can swish and swirl in many and all directions, not necessarily knowing where it's going, but reaching more and more connection, finding the joyous scary peaceful thrill in the family of all things.
ALL things.
love,
Chris

This moment of our lives

Go slow.

You've heard that here before,
you'll probably hear it again,
and for now:
go slow.

It's good Friday.
It's hot.
It's Friday.

People are dying, right now,
people are being born,
this is the moment of this moment of our life.

I just gave a "lesson,"
in the Anat Baniel Method.
I was
"tired"
and hence forced to go slower than usual,
and guess what:
going slow I could notice even more than
I usually do
(which most would say is a lot)
and noticing more,
and using an even lighter touch than usual
and smaller movements,
and letting myself find the laziest easiest way
to come up with the next improved movement,
the lesson went
extremely well.

And what about Good Friday.
There is a death story.
Go slow about what we are supposed to think
about a death story,
even though tradition
and habit
and culture all say:
think and feel X about this,
go slow.

Just breathe.

You are alive.

Slow down enough to savor that.
From that think about the death that comes
before resurrection,
or not.

Mull over Katie's third question:
Who and how are you when you attach to and believe the thought
and
the resurrection question:
who and how are you when you don't have the thought, or don't believe it?

Go slow with even these thoughts.

Take a walk.

Read a book you love.

Take a nap.

Go slow.

This is the moment of your life to be at one
with this
moment of your life.

Good,
April 22, Friday, 2011.