Your Creative Spark

 
Julia Watkins

We need your voice quit hiding in the closet
Your creative streak mines a valuable deposit
In the coffers of the Earth and the great human spirit
Can you feel it? Smell it? Taste it? Can you hear it?

The days of self doubt and tamping down are through.
You are needed to help the collective pull through.
The sludge of this patriarchal nightmare breaks down
Soon revealing an equity. We’re peacefulness-bound.

Bring our your voice, your words, your kindness.
Your spontaneous true heart? Let yourself find this.
The energy that keeps us all afloat? 
Must come from dispelling the fears by rote.

Say what you feel, dive into that pool.
Be free, tell the tale, be daring, be cool.
The only way to uncover this prosperous bliss
Is to speak out in tumultuous times like this.

Tricia Schwaba 2020

 

January

“And now let us welcome the New Year
Full of things that have never been. ”
— Rainer Maria Rilke
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“January, the month of new beginnings and cherished memories, beckons. Come, let winter weave her wondrous spell: cold crisp, woolen-muffler days, long dark evenings of savory suppers, lively conversations, or solitary joys. Outside the temperature drops as the snow falls softly. All of nature is at peace. We should be too. Draw hearthside. This is the month to dream, to look forward to the year ahead and journey within.”

From Simple Abundance A Daybook of Comfort & Joy Sarah Ban Breathnach

Yoga Closing Words

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“Heal yourself with the  light of the sun and the rays of the moon. With the sound of the river  and the waterfall. With the swaying of the sea and the fluttering of  birds. Heal yourself with mint, neem, and eucalyptus. Sweeten with  lavender, rosemary, and chamomile. Hug yourself with the cocoa bean and a  hint of cinnamon. Put love in tea instead of sugar and drink it looking  at the stars. Heal yourself with the kisses that the wind gives you and  the hugs of the rain. Stand strong with your bare feet on the ground  and with everything that comes from it. Be smarter every day by  listening to your intuition, looking at the world with your forehead.  Jump, dance, sing, so that you live happier. Heal yourself, with  beautiful love, and always remember ... you are the medicine.”

Advice from María Sabina, Mexican healer and poet

Give Thanks, A Poem for Thanksgiving by Max Coots

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Let us give thanks for a bounty of people:
For children who are our second planting and, though they grow like the weeds and the wind too soon blows them away, may they forgive us our cultivation and fondly remember where their roots are.
Let us give thanks:
For generous friends, who, like scallions and cucumbers, keep reminding us we had them;
For crotchety friends, as sour as rhubarb and as indestructible;
For handsome friends, who are as gorgeous and as elegant as a row of corn— and the others— as plain as potatoes, and so good for you.
For funny friends, who are as silly as brussel sprouts and as assuming as Jerusalem artichokes and serious friends as complex as cauliflowers and as intricate as onions;
For friends as unpretentious as cabbages, as subtle as summer squash, as persistent as parsley, as delightful as dill, as endless as zucchini and who— like parsnips— can be counted on to see you through a long winter;
For old friends, nodding like sunflowers in the evening-time and young friends coming on fast as radishes;
For loving friends, who wind around us like tendrils, and hold us despite our blights, wilts, and witherings;
And finally for those friends gone now, like gardens past. that have been harvested— but who fed us in their times that we might have life thereafter;
For all these we give thanks.

Dear Physical Body,

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Dear Physical Body,
Thank you. Thank you so much for these many years of carrying me around, cleansing out my system, bringing blood to my extremities and otherwise balancing a series of sometimes bad inputs on my part— the countless times I have pummeled you with trans-fats, too much sugar or unnecessary, heavy, calorie- laden food. You have sifted through them beautifully breaking them down dutifully releasing the nasty and utilizing the good stuff and I am amazed at how quickly you bring us back to homeostasis.

Those times we have been wiped out from those foreign invaders entering your boundaries were ultimately a certain gain of stamina as you gained strength and learned to fight off new & unexpected foes. Bugs, viruses and other suspicious characters were hellbent on messing with us but you healed beautifully and tossed them out on their asses.

I apologize for putting you down when you have not appeared perfect. As I responded to the effects of time and intensity by hatefully threatening you with injecting toxins or cutting & slicing for merely showing a deep line carved from repetitive laughter or from some of the tragedies I have overcome I see now the error of my ways. I have repeatedly shamed you for showing inevitable signs of having lived a life. I’m sorry.

Here I sit fast approaching 60 and you are still carrying me dutifully, walking me down the many paths I choose, sorting through the debris I leave scattershot on your landscape offering little to no thanks, and even criticism for showing me the slightest weakness. Ultimately much to my amazement you stay powerful & strong. And by the way I understand one of the things I scream about repetitively, the sagging in our middle, is mostly my fault for not understanding that I must keep moving & strengthening all parts, not just the ones that are easy. And you being exhausted at 9pm? I get it now. It’s not due to you fading but due to the fact that I choose to hold your eyes to a screen five hours that day and when that daylight fades I sit still in the night in a pit of uneven cushions watching a bigger screen for another three.

I have not always treated you as the queen you are. I have not treasured you for the hoops you have jumped through and the rivers of energy you have carved out for my well-being— for you keeping our heart pumping and our circulation full and complete, despite my sometimes precarious choices. I will try to, more consistently, offer you the ultimate gift one can offer in this skin— compassion. You deserve it more than any other in my life. Every morning with the rising sun opportunities for change rise as well. I get to choose the course of the day— nourish you, move you with intention through all your ranges of motion, keep your abilities robust. I vow to to give you the stillness & silence you crave so that you can calm & balance, to laugh more so you can sink into the best feelings of all: joy & peace.

You are beauty & my best friend. You will be taken for granted no more. I love you and I always have, so you go— evolve in the way you need to evolve and I will offer you the unconditional love you deserve as we ride the crest of this aging wave together, enjoying cool water on our skin and the warm rays of sun on our ever-changing face.

With infinite love & gratitude, 

Tricia