We are all in this together

My back pain has not gone away as quickly as I had hoped and I’m reminded how humbling pain can be.  The things that I usually do and take for granted are now challenging and take extra energy.  Sitting is the most painful position for me to be in–it’s interesting how much of my life I spend sitting.  I’m glad I signed up for the 8 day online conference “Inspiring Women with Soul” because I can listen to the talks while lying down and I find them to be connecting and encouraging.  On Tuesday I listened to Anodea Judith and Debbie Rosas talk about being in relationship with our bodies. “It’s our partner.”  We need to learn to listen to it, to read, and interpret its messages.  “Often we don’t listen until something painful happens.”  One of them said that she thinks the Body is the unconscious mind.  So, I’m trying to honor this time and listen to what my body might be telling me.  Yesterday I kept thinking of the Mary Oliver poem I love so much and wanted to share it:

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on you knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees,  the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting – over and over announcing your place in the family of things.

Mary Oliver