On Monday I posted the poem “A Valentine for Ernest Mann” and soon realized the words had a strong connection to the meaning behind this blog…”to live in the moment and make it beautiful.”
If beauty can be found in two skunks, it can be found anywhere, right?
As Ernest said, “Nothing was ugly just because the world said so.”
The message behind the poem is the message I hope to convey in what I write in this very spot.
Beauty isn’t going to fall out of the sky and hit us across the head every day.Â
Sometimes we have to go and find it.Â
Sometimes “what we have to do is live in a way that lets us find (it)” as Naomi Shihab Nye writes.
Just as I have to mentally re-invent cleaning, and other mundane chores to make myself “want” to do them, “Maybe if we re-invent whatever our lives give us we find poems” (Nye). “Making it beautiful” is all about taking what we have and finding a poem.Â
Taking a commonplace job and making it a nut farm.
Taking a scratched up, dilapidated door and making it a pretty shade of green.Â
Taking a moment full of tears, fear, and doubt and turning it into a moment of recognition, hope and LOVE.Â
 AJH loves most everything she comes in contact with…
…Even skunks.
 (that’s a baby skunk she’s “loving” from her forest friends collection!)
In beautiful, serendipitous fashion, today I came across this post called “Live so the poems can find you” (guest post by Joanna Paterson) on Patti Digh’s blog, 37 Days. I love it when that happens.
Here is how the author puts the phrase “live so the poems can find you” into practice:
“Spending as much time as possible outside
Taking photos. Â I mean rather: taking photos with a mindset of wonder.
Making room for writing practice
Allowing what flows to be practice. Not perfect, not wholly formed. Â Just practice
Sharing at least some of what comes out. Â Poems do not like to be kept in boxes.
Letting the words tumble, and find their own rhythm
Noticing patterns, looking for connections
Listening to what people are saying (social media provides clue after clue)
Embracing beginner’s mind
Paying attention to the everyday.  There’s so much wonder to be
found there.Writing as part of the act of grieving
Listening to what the land, the water, the trees, the hills…are saying.
Listening to what my heart is saying: tears, laughter, whispers, songs, prayers, fire, softness
Passing it on: not being scared to share my work, not being scared to declare how beautiful the world is, passing on what I’ve learned about how it is possible to live, so the poems can find you.”
Happy Friday.
This weekend try to live so the poems can find you.
And don’t forget to LOVE.
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