Tag: poetry

Posted in Blogging

The “soft animal of your body”

Posted on by laholmberg

I watched in awe a few weeks ago as wild geese flew daily over my dog Finn and I on our morning walk, loudly honking their presence and sending Finn into a barking frenzy of frustration, running in fastdogfastdog mode across the field, believing he could somehow reach them.

We both have a tendency to think seemingly impossible things just might be possible if we pretend they are and dive on in.

Why not? 🙂

For several days the geese flew over, their long journey ahead of them and I found myself thinking about the wonder of it all.

And I don’t mean that in an airyfairy, life is all rainbows and unicorns way.

I mean it in a ‘this world gets to me sometimes and my mental stability relies on grounding myself solidly in what’s true and real‘ way.

The trees.

The grass.

The birds, bugs, sky, air, flowers, weeds, etc…

Let’s just sum it up and say the outdoors- ALL OF IT. It guides and reassures me.

And in the midst of all my thinking, about the geese, life on this earth and my endless questions about my purpose and place in it, the most beautiful Mary Oliver poem was revealed to me.

Though familiar with other beautiful works of Mary Oliver, I’d never read this poem before.

Obviously, I wasn’t meant to.

Until now.

When it would mean to me what it can only mean to me now that I’ve journeyed to this exact place and space in my life, revealing ideas pertinent to me now.

The endlessly needed reminder to each of us that we don’t need to do anything in particular to find our way to being who we were meant to be. We ARE our way and we’re already there.

“You only have to LET the soft animal of your body love what it loves.”

I. Love. Those. Words.

You love what you love for reasons you may not be privy to, but must you understand it to allow yourself to accept and move in it rather than denying it?

The geese don’t doubt the inner compass that guides their successful migration. Why do we doubt ours?

To allow the soft animal of your body to love what it loves is to trust in something greater than your own human understanding while moving humbly in the direction of its guidance.

It guides us through the storms of life’s sorrow, pain, and heartbreak and ushers us into the imminent emerging sunshine of life’s joy, wonder, and awe.

And we go on.

Sometimes lonely but never alone.

Finding our way back home.

Posted in Blogging

The thing is not the thing

Posted on by laholmberg

“Until you learn to heal the wounds of your past, you will continue to bleed into the future. You can bandage it with food, alcohol, drugs or work, but eventually it will stain your life and you will continue to bleed.”   -Iyanla Vanzant

Healing the wounds of the past begins by acknowledging the wounds of the past. If that sounds simple, think again. Many of us go through our days as the walking wounded, not even realizing that we’ve been injured in the first place. Why? Because we wear a bandage of avoidance tactics that allow us to make our problem about the bandage rather than what’s underneath that we’re neglecting to address.

Avoidance tactics come in many forms. Obviously, dissatisfaction with your body is a common one, yet many people do not realize that their body and their dissatisfaction with it is not actually the problem, but a bandage they place over the true wound they carry to avoid addressing that wound. How can they address something they don’t even know they have? Perhaps that sounds confusing. Maybe you are shaking your head, thinking, “no- -I really do have a problem, and it’s not from any past wound. My problem is that I can’t not overeat so I am overweight and it’s causing me health and self-esteem problems. My being overweight clearly is the problem in my case.”  Let’s play out a scenario. Your weight loss efforts have thus far been unsuccessful, so you decide to go balls to the wall and have gastric bypass surgery. The surgery is a success and you are no longer physically able to eat large amounts of food without becoming ill. You lose weight rapidly because the pleasure of overeating no longer is greater than the pain involved afterward. You begin exercising and soon you are pleased with the results you see in the mirror. Your body is looking good. But something is still not right. You sense this, but you can’t put your finger on what exactly it is. And now you don’t know what to do to make it better, to make you feel “settled” inside. Overeating is no longer comforting since it makes you sick. You can’t focus your self-hatred on how awful your body looks because now your body looks like you always wanted it to look and yet, things still aren’t perfect. And no, they will never be perfect, realistically, but that’s not the issue here. The issue is figuring out what hurt/heartache/trauma/anxiety/fear, etc… has been attempting to reveal itself only to have you continue to bury it under your bandage. What unidentified dragon have you been hiding from behind a wall of self-dissatisfaction and avoidance tactics? You have now reached a jumping off point in your evolvement where you will either take up a different avoidance tactic (“switching addictions”) or you will decide once and for all to rip off the bandage and finally take a good look to see what it is you’ve been running from all this time.
The longer you stand strong in the face of your dragon, looking it squarely in the eye, the less frightening it will become. And eventually the day will come when you will be ready to take it down and utilize it. On your terms.

Posted in Blogging

To be a simple man

Posted on by laholmberg
 Lynyrd Skynyrd  understood what it was to be a simple man:
Mama told me when I was young
“Come sit beside me, my only son
And listen closely to what I say
And if you do this it’ll help you some sunny day”
“Oh, take your time, don’t live too fast
Troubles will come and they will pass
You’ll find a woman and you’ll find love
And don’t forget, son, there is someone up above”
“And be a simple kind of man
Oh, be something you love and understand
Baby be a simple kind of man
Oh, won’t you do this for me, son, if you can”
“Forget your lust for the rich man’s gold
All that you need is in your soul
And you can do this, oh baby, if you try
All that I want for you, my son, is to be satisfied”
“And be a simple kind of man
Oh, be something you love and understand
Baby be a simple kind of man
Oh, won’t you do this for me, son, if you can”
Oh yes, I will
“Boy, don’t you worry, you’ll find yourself
Follow your heart and nothing else
And you can do this, oh baby, if you try
All that I want for you, my son, is to be satisfied”
“And be a simple kind of man
Oh, be something you love and understand
Baby be a simple kind of man
Oh, won’t you do this for me, son, if you can”
Baby, be a simple, really simple man
Oh, be something you love and understand
Baby, be a simple, kind of simple man
Songwriters: Gary Rossington / Ron Van Zant
Simple Man lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, BMG Rights Management
It is my belief that the aspiration to become a simple man is not a question of your male or female-ness, but rather, a desire to be as Kicking Bird put it: “a true human being”.
Kicking Bird: [in Lakota] I was just thinking that of all the trails in this life, there are some that matter most. It is the trail of a true human being. I think you are on this trail, and it is good to see.    (-Dances With Wolves)
A true human being. That’s what I think about when I hear this song. Not male, not female, not a specific color, origin, sexuality, class– let’s see- have I covered all the labels and “identifiers” that separate and keep us each in our place? I know I couldn’t possibly have, so let’s throw a “and yada yada yada” in for good measure and be done with it. All of us. Okay. Now jump out of your mentally restrictive skin suit and go back for a second serving of the above lyrics. Can you feel it? I sure do. If I take just a back-pocket portion of wisdom from this song, I get this: While life is a journey of love, beauty, and wonder, it will not be free from strife. But if you remember what’s important, who you are in your soul and be led in the direction of your true heart’s voice, you will be able to rise above the joyless distractions that the world may provoke you with and triumphantly find your way. Slow down and enjoy your journey, understanding that while you are already equipped with everything you need to make it on your own, you are never all alone.
The trail to being a true human being is neither a sprint nor a marathon. It is a lifelong quest to find our way. I believe that if we could each aspire to become the simple “man” we hold within us, we could aid one another greatly on our journey.