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I know. We are always hearing about the stress of the Holidays.
But what about the NOT Holidays?
Sure, sometimes, December can be rough.
But with all the goodwill, decorations, parties and whatnot, even with how busy it can be, December can also be quite cheery. The month you gotta worry about—the one you gotta keep your eye on cuz it’s a troublemaker—is January. My apologies to anyone born in January. The month is better because you were born then.
It’s time to recommit to doing a little bit of essential self-care, the kind that helps you be at your best. Cuz we all know that it’s those little things that we do regularly for ourselves that eventually turn into the big things, the things that help us live the kind of lives we want to live and be the kind of people we need to be.
Read moreToday, I want share one of my favorite winter poems, White-Eyes by Mary Oliver.
First of all, if you haven’t already, ‘tis the season to sign up for my 31-Day Meditation Challenge. It starts January 1 and lasts all through the month. The challenge is simply to meditate any way you wish for 15 minutes a day, every day for the entire month. I’ll be supporting you every step of the way with daily emails, live group meditations sessions, and plenty of recordings, poetry, links, and stories to make the experience very rich.
Give the world a gift by practicing drawing inward, getting quiet in heart and mind, so you can present a YOU that is more mindful, less reactive, and rooted in compassion.
It costs only $31 and you can get your tuition back if you complete the challenge. Make a meditation posse and sign up!
Onto the poem!
What I love so much about Mary Oliver's poetry is that so often in her poetry she is speaking to the eternal, the Everything, God, or the Universe by simply reflecting what she sees in nature.
And like in her poem “Bone” I love how she willingly admits that she doesn't fully know what God is but is "playing at the edges of knowing" and that perhaps it’s not about knowing at all, but rather it’s about “seeing, touching, and loving.”
It’s about being present with senses and heart.
Through her poetry, Mary Oliver helps us all to create a touchpoint to the Divine that is present both in our outer and inner worlds and opens us to seeing, touching, and loving as she steers us away from trying to make it all make sense.
Her poem White-Eyes is about seeing the Divine in something as simple yet complex as the wind dancing through the tree tops and the snow silently drifting down from the heavens. It’s an exposé about how with the “right eyes” or with attuned sight, we might be able to see the loving Divine present in all things.
I hope you enjoy it.
BY MARY OLIVER
In winter
all the singing is in
the tops of the trees
where the wind-bird
with its white eyes
shoves and pushes
among the branches.
Like any of us
he wants to go to sleep,
but he's restless—
he has an idea,
and slowly it unfolds
from under his beating wings
as long as he stays awake.
But his big, round music, after all,
is too breathy to last.
So, it's over.
In the pine-crown
he makes his nest,
he's done all he can.
I don't know the name of this bird,
I only imagine his glittering beak
tucked in a white wing
while the clouds—
which he has summoned
from the north—
which he has taught
to be mild, and silent—
thicken, and begin to fall
into the world below
like stars, or the feathers
of some unimaginable bird
that loves us,
that is asleep now, and silent—
that has turned itself
into snow.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on what this poem says to you.
Drop me a line, I read every email I get.
May we all be our best by remember those essential phrases:
I love you.
I’m sorry.
How can I help?
Yoga For Stiffer Bodies on Saturdays at 7:30–8:30 am at Mosaic Yoga
Vinyasa Mondays at 12 pm at Mosaic Yoga
I teach a Restore Yoga and Yoga Nidra workshop on the first Sunday of every month at Mosaic Yoga
Plus, mark your calendar for January 1 because I’m hosting an in-person yoga class to begin the new year. Together we’ll plant our Sankalpa, the seed of our intentions, through ritual, movement, meditation, and breath. Mosaic Yoga.
