Thank you for this...I wrote this yesterday as a response to Kintsugi Again. I also is about grace and brokenness. I've been working on the Fourth Step for a few weeks and your poem was a healing prompt.
"As grace falls into our days, drop by drop" (insert heart emoji here) For me the question becomes, will I receive this daily grace? And will I accept that grace is (also) my empowerment?
Glad you included the broken birdbath! Our front step fountain also cracked this winter, and I’ve been contemplating what to do. Maybe as Leonard Cohen says, the cracks are how the light gets in.
Grace for me today is remembering that my tachycardia (rapid heartbeat) can yield to the grace of the vagal nerve system right here in the same torso. We have grace built into our bodies; and as the world becomes more wildly unregulated, we can tap our breath, our gut, our awareness to reregulate our over-stimulated bodies.
Zooming out a bit, I note that using the vagal maneuver as ER docs call it, which is a focused breathholding with abdominal contraction, much like what works for hiccups, forces me to move my awareness out of my thinking place in the forebrain and into the center of my body. And much as Descartes would disagree, it’s not that ‘I think, therefore I am,’ it’s more like ‘I breathe, and I am.’
reflecting on this poem led me to focus on the idea of “foundations”. be it a building or a body, perhaps some foundations are facades, leaving us falsely believing that when we fall we have failed. much like your realization that the birdbath was still of use and served a purpose, albeit differently than imagined or invented, maybe we are so much more than the foundations we think keep us safe and sheltered. thanks james
I love this meditation, Skott. Our many foundations in life will inevitably fall and fail. And we can often rebuild or reimagine or reframe. Thank you!
James: I’m part of a women’s group that is exploring ‘Living Grace’. Most of them are not on Substack. Would you be OK with me sharing your poem? I’m not sure the best way to do that. They all have a WhatsApp community. Would you be OK with me sharing it? And if so, do you have a suggestion the best way to do that?
I have a bird bath base but no bowl. 😂 i keep the stand in my house thinking I’ll find the just right bowl at a thrift store one day. In the meantime, I’ve switched to plastic solar fountains which bring me and the neighborhood cats and hopefully some birds, joy. I love the idea of grave and thinking about what a gift it is when it arrives.
I just wanted to let you know I read this poem, "Grace Makes Us," aloud at our church's Easter service today. We had been invited to suggest poems/other readings to add to the program. It fit in perfectly and was so well received. Thank you for it!
Thank you for this...I wrote this yesterday as a response to Kintsugi Again. I also is about grace and brokenness. I've been working on the Fourth Step for a few weeks and your poem was a healing prompt.
broken pieces abandoned
after an epoch of hurt
are re-gathered
In hopes of mending
and meaning
one shard at a time.
study the edges
what connects inside
to interface outside
informed interconnections
the serenity prayer
unfolding grace
after grace
into understanding
a slow revelation
in the direction
of wholeness
my soul restored
each break lined in gold
Yes! Each break lined in gold as with Japanese pottery meditation on being put back together: cracked, restored, golden.
This is so gorgeous, like a blend of those two poems of mine. I love it and thank you for sharing!
I'm looking for grace wherever I can find it these days. Thank you, James. 🧡
"As grace falls into our days, drop by drop" (insert heart emoji here) For me the question becomes, will I receive this daily grace? And will I accept that grace is (also) my empowerment?
Yes 💓
wonderful point on the power of presence. we can miss miracles if we’re only looking for mud
Glad you included the broken birdbath! Our front step fountain also cracked this winter, and I’ve been contemplating what to do. Maybe as Leonard Cohen says, the cracks are how the light gets in.
Grace for me today is remembering that my tachycardia (rapid heartbeat) can yield to the grace of the vagal nerve system right here in the same torso. We have grace built into our bodies; and as the world becomes more wildly unregulated, we can tap our breath, our gut, our awareness to reregulate our over-stimulated bodies.
Zooming out a bit, I note that using the vagal maneuver as ER docs call it, which is a focused breathholding with abdominal contraction, much like what works for hiccups, forces me to move my awareness out of my thinking place in the forebrain and into the center of my body. And much as Descartes would disagree, it’s not that ‘I think, therefore I am,’ it’s more like ‘I breathe, and I am.’
Yes, "I breathe, and I am," sounds very much like Thich Nhat Hanh. I love the idea that grace is built into our bodies.
Yes, Leonard Cohen.
"I breathe, and I am" ... oh, yes 🙏 🤲 🙏
When our base breaks off,
may we still hold out, open.
Salvage what we can.
Gorgeous
lovely haiku!
I don't look for grace. I am doubtful if it looks for me. I create a space for it.
That feels like the beginning to a poem in and of itself!
reflecting on this poem led me to focus on the idea of “foundations”. be it a building or a body, perhaps some foundations are facades, leaving us falsely believing that when we fall we have failed. much like your realization that the birdbath was still of use and served a purpose, albeit differently than imagined or invented, maybe we are so much more than the foundations we think keep us safe and sheltered. thanks james
I love this meditation, Skott. Our many foundations in life will inevitably fall and fail. And we can often rebuild or reimagine or reframe. Thank you!
For me, Grace comes quietly when I allow myself to not have the answer.
James: I’m part of a women’s group that is exploring ‘Living Grace’. Most of them are not on Substack. Would you be OK with me sharing your poem? I’m not sure the best way to do that. They all have a WhatsApp community. Would you be OK with me sharing it? And if so, do you have a suggestion the best way to do that?
Hi Charlotte, yes feel free to share! You could probably take a screenshot of the post on FB or Instagram and share that as a photo?
What a waste
a closed heart is, like a fist that clenches
of its own accord, so caught in habit
the hand doesn’t know what it’s doing.
So beautiful / so relevant
It did feel timely when I wrote it. Thank you!
I have a bird bath base but no bowl. 😂 i keep the stand in my house thinking I’ll find the just right bowl at a thrift store one day. In the meantime, I’ve switched to plastic solar fountains which bring me and the neighborhood cats and hopefully some birds, joy. I love the idea of grave and thinking about what a gift it is when it arrives.
You have a base and I have a bowl--we should really get together! ;)
Clearly that is what the universe seems to be saying.
I just wanted to let you know I read this poem, "Grace Makes Us," aloud at our church's Easter service today. We had been invited to suggest poems/other readings to add to the program. It fit in perfectly and was so well received. Thank you for it!