When we love: unfinished poem
When we love
With all our being
Unconditionally
As we love children
Then what?
Be relentless
Be relentless in living
Be relentless in loving
Loving your-self
Be relentlessly happy
Be relentlessly sad
Don’t numb yourself from life
Be you
All of you
Be grateful
For all of you
Be loving
Of all of you
Be gentle
With all of you
And then love thy neighbour as you love yourself
I wanted to give this a try. Not yet happy with it though.
I wrote this because a while back, a long discussion with a friend, highlighted that often adversary we feel towards others, is based on us seeing things in them we do not like about ourselves. So we project our secret self-loathing, or even just the niggling dislikes, onto others. As someone who has very well honed skills in self-loathing I was always intrigued by the commandment of loving ones neighbour as one loves oneself.
And then
one morning.
One morning you wake up.
And the sun shines.
Sadness
When sadness is all you know
And in the morning you get up
And you try to find an inch of caring
And you paint on a smile
And you moisturize your frown
And you put on your armour
All black, all red, a stunning dress
Yoga pants and tunic
Anything, everything to hide behind
Do not see me–
Get distracted by my armour–please!
Do not see me–
As I fade into the background–please!
I can’t fade.
I am too much.
Too obvious.
Too present.
And then there are words faster than my brain tumbling out unsuspectedly.
So I hide.
Behind my armour of distraction.
Homemade–my silent prayers woven into the fabric.
Not even dragon claws could cut through.
So you carry the hills, the wood, the sea, within. Anchors in a wild wild world.
You might carry faith, belonging, love.
You might carry anger, pride, resentment.
Opposing mechanisms for the same purpose: To keep you save
In this wild wild world, from whom you need to hide your pain.
