Why wait for your awakening?

Sometimes a poem can say what would otherwise go unheard.  How this happens is a mystery to me.

Awakening Now 

Why wait for your awakening?

The moment your eyes are open, seize the day.

Would you hold back when the Beloved beckons?
Would you deliver your litany of sins like a child’s collection of sea shells, prized and labeled?

“No, I can’t step across the threshold,” you say, eyes downcast.

“I’m not worthy” I’m afraid, and my motives aren’t pure.

I’m not perfect, and surely I haven’t practiced nearly enough.

My meditation isn’t deep, and my prayers are sometimes insincere.

I still chew my fingernails, and the refrigerator isn’t clean.

“Do you value your reasons for staying small more than the light shining through the open door?”

Forgive yourself.

Now is the only time you have to be whole.

Now is the sole moment that exists to live in the light of your true Self.

Perfection is not a prerequisite for anything but pain.

Please, oh please, don’t continue to believe in your disbelief.

This is the day of your awakening.

—By Danna Faulds

Really, since high school (and I have to admit, that was a VERY long time ago!), when I first fell in love with poetry, I’ve sensed and loved the mystery: How does a poem convey what otherwise surely will be missed by our ordinary human ears? And open us up to new awareness? Never did get to the bottom of it.

I realized, just now, it’s better not to know!  Mysteries have their purpose—they keep us engaged, curious, and tuned in to our own experience, emotions, and thoughts… as we resonate like a tuning fork to the message they hold.  They can invite us to awaken to a great new knowing.  I can’t help but think these are all good things!  So why spoil the mystery of how this works, even if I could!?

Over my cup of coffee this morning, reflecting about all this and looking back to my high school days, I could even say that poetry saved my life. In a real sense, it did.

Already awkward, introverted, shy, lonely and unsure of myself—this high schooler then came to have trauma and depression layered on top of it all, like heavy blankets in summer. Not a great combo.  Maybe you can relate?  High school (except in Edwin, my husband’s, case!) was NOT a fun time, for so many of us.

So how did poetry save me?  In the midst of this terrible time, I was introduced to poetry in different forms, everything from Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” to “Richard Corey,” by Edward Arlington Robinson.  These tragic and beautiful stories woke me up to a wide new world.  I entered a mysterious, powerful, gorgeous place of words and ideas that I hadn’t known, before.

In this awakening, I got the clear message that I’d survive.  In a way I hadn’t understood until that instant, I saw that so much of human suffering is—often unintentionally—self-created.  As one of my heroes, Martha Beck, says, “Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional.”  So even as a kid, I could begin to glimpse a new way of living, and that I was larger than my circumstances, and my True Self was right there, across the threshold.  I stepped through the doorway to meet her.

Then, shortly after, in one illuminated moment as I was walking down the school hallway, I knew in my True Self that I had to share about the awakening that is already there—that it’s waiting for all of us.  Ever since, I’ve been all about holding the door open for others.  And what joy that is.

Note:  Reading a poem—or taking in an emotionally moving and thought-provoking painting, walking in a beautiful wilderness, and other experiences—all can evoke an awakening.  There is also the practice of mindful living, intentionally creating moment-to-moment awareness.  This kind of awakening to new awareness and healing is always available to us, via simple mindfulness practices or meditation.  It’s easier than you think!