Notes on Survival
by Nikita Gill

You are allowed to break.
Everything does.
The stars grow tired and fall.
The waves crash against rocks and shores.
Trees fall for both storms and wind
leaving behind seeds and saplings
so a version of them may grow again.
Storm clouds part for rain
then part for the sun to come through.
Night must break for day
and day for night in a cycle.
The world is made of broken things
piecing themselves back together
-- this is what gives us the most resilient stories.
So why do you think that you were made
any differently than the night and the storm clouds?
You know how to put yourself back together again, too,
just as well as they do.

Take heart that you have managed
to rebuild yourself a thousand times
after every bad day.

That is no small thing.

​WHEN SOMEONE DEEPLY LISTENS TO YOU
by John Fox

When someone deeply listens to you
It is like holding out a dented cup
you’ve had since childhood
and watching it fill up with
cold, fresh water.
When it balances on top of the brim,
you are understood.
When it overflows and touches your skin
you are loved.

When someone deeply listens to you
the room where you stay
starts a new life
and the place where you wrote your first poem
begins to glow in your mind’s eye.
It is as if gold had been discovered.

When someone deeply listens to you
Your bare feet are on the earth
and a beloved land that seemed distant
is now at home within you.

by Lynn Ungar

Imagine. The only thing that
God requires of them
is a persistent, wriggling, moving forward,
passing the earth through
the crinkled tube of their bodies
in a motion less like chewing
than like song.

Everything they encounter
goes through them,
as if sunsets, drug store clerks,
diesel fumes and sidewalks
were to move through our very centers
and emerge subtly different
for having fed us — looser somehow,
more open to the possibility of life.
​
They say the job of angels
is to sing to God in serried choirs.
Perhaps. But most jobs
aren’t so glamorous.
Mostly the world depends upon
the silent chanting underneath our feet.
To every grain that enters: “Welcome.”
To every parting mote: “Be blessed.”

AN INVITATION
by Jeff Foster
from Falling in Love With Where You Are
​
I don't want to hear what you believe
I'm not at all interested in your certainty
I couldn't care less about your unexcelled perfection

Share with me your doubts
Open up your tender heart
Let me in to your struggles

I'll meet you in that place
Where your spiritual conclusions
Are starting to crack open

That's where the creativity lives
That's where the newness shines
That's where we can truly meet:
Beyond the image

Your imperfections
Are so perfect
In this light

I don't want you to be perfect
I want you to be real

the fire that awakens you
by Danielle Doby
From I Am Her Tribe

I am drawn to the light in others
it is how I know I am not alone

to be a seeker of the light
is to be connected to the very truth itself -

               the way out of the darkness
               is when we can look across the table
               and find our face in another's 

when we let our stories exist
we invite others to see themselves more clearly
in a space where
pain
struggle
stunning resilience
and belonging
are not unique to just one person

they live in each of us
proving we are not on our own

i heal
and you heal
and when we heal
the world heals with us

an open heart is the key
that unlocks hope's reach

the sun is here
within you
now open your eyes

WHEN SOMEONE DEEPLY LISTENS TO YOU
by John Fox

When someone deeply listens to you
It is like holding out a dented cup
you’ve had since childhood
and watching it fill up with
cold, fresh water.
When it balances on top of the brim,
you are understood.
When it overflows and touches your skin
you are loved.

When someone deeply listens to you
the room where you stay
starts a new life
and the place where you wrote your first poem
begins to glow in your mind’s eye.
It is as if gold had been discovered.

When someone deeply listens to you
Your bare feet are on the earth
and a beloved land that seemed distant
is now at home within you.

stop.
stand here.
and breathe in
all that makes you grateful for this life.

a good laugh.
a good cry.
when both are fused together
at the same time.

soul connections.
choosing someone with your whole heart.
the ease exhaled after the release.

tuck these close
into the corners of your pockets.

the deep crevices of yoru spine.

so you may always
stand tall in the belief
that no matter what you are given
magic is always present within you
in what's here
and what's right now.

Long before the pandemic, the trees
knew how to guard one place with
roots and shade. Moss found
how to hug a stone for life.
Every stream works out how
to move in place, staying home
even as it flows generously
outward, sending bounty far.
Now is our time to practice -
singing from balconies, sending
words of comfort by any courier,
kindling our lonesome generosity
to shine in all directions like stars.

For the rebels and the misfits, the black sheep and the outsiders. For the refugees, the orphans, the scapegoats, and the weirdos. For the uprooted, the abandoned, the shunned and invisible ones.

May you recognize with increasing vividness that you know what you know.

May you give up your allegiances to self-doubt, meekness, and hesitation.

May you be willing to be unlikeable, and in the process be utterly loved.

May you be impervious to the wrongful projections of others, and may you deliver your disagreements with precision and grace.

May you see, with the consummate clarity of nature moving through you, that your voice is not only necessary, but desperately needed to sing us out of this muddle.

May you feel shored up, supported, entwined, and reassured as you offer yourself and your gifts to the world.

May you know for certain that even as you stand by yourself, you are not alone.