Not Like Everyone Else
Long ago I figured it out. That’s just the way I am.
For example: I have never been able to understand
what's so great about sliced bread,
search everywhere for the other variety.
And there is no desire lurking inside me
for a large-screen TV.
Still, it seems a bit strange that now, mostly,
what I feel is this sense of peace.
Dylan Thomas would never have approved (at least,
not if we believe what he says in the villanelle).
Toward the end Dad was sleeping all the time—
even when someone shook him,
called persistently in his ear.
How much additional transition is there,
I ask myself, between one "good night"
and the next?
Let him go, gently.
He was ten weeks shy of 94 years
and, until a month ago,
could have engaged you
in an intelligent conversation. Can’t see
how we have any right to be upset.
Had either of them departed quickly,
never suffered their prolonged frailty,
a younger son might still be inclined to dwell
upon parental insufficiency. Instead,
over time, youth and age exchanged
places. (In the end, now-sightless eyes
still twinkling, Dad even introduced me
to everyone as his father.) And I forged
a bond with each that otherwise
might still be counted among the missing.
Let him go, gently.
Perhaps, I decide, it’s not so strange
that now what I feel, mostly,
is this sense of peace.
Steve Bloom
January 2007
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Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Michael's Musings - On Being Pregnant
In 1964, Robert Coles interviewed a poor black woman who spoke of the desperation of her life, and the difficulty of finding happiness:
“To me, having a baby inside me is the only time I’m really alive.”
She was right and she always will be, for life is all about being pregnant. It is all about being alive and feeling alive with love inside, for that is what the inner child gives us. Yes, a woman feels alive during pregnancy, but if the life she feels is that of a child other than her own, the feeling will pass after birth and not return until the next pregnancy.
It is only when we feel pregnant with love for ourselves that we feel really alive and know why Mona Lisa smiles.
Women need to be pregnant, and men need to be pregnant. There is no other way of being in touch once again with our whole nature. There is no other way of re-membering.
For men, making a killing during the hunting season or in the battlefield or in the stock market doesn’t do it. Acquiring mounds of minerals and magnifying our net worth, or scoring bulls eyes with hoards of women, or being immersed in any other addiction does not fill the emptiness that only being pregnant and re-membering can fill. Having a son, and being filled with pride is no substitute for being pregnant with our own inner child and filled with love, for only when we are filled with love are we prepared to become lovers of our sons and peacemakers instead of warriors.
Tony Blair quoted Thornton Wilder* at the Memorial Service to the British people who died in the Twin Towers: “But soon we shall die and all memory of those five will have left the earth, and we ourselves shall be loved for a while and forgotten. But the love will have been enough; all those impulses of love return to the love that made them. Even memory is not necessary for love. There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.”
Let us all be aware and celebrate our life-long pregnancy, for love is the only survival, the only meaning. --Michael Murphy
*The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Thornton Wilder
“To me, having a baby inside me is the only time I’m really alive.”
She was right and she always will be, for life is all about being pregnant. It is all about being alive and feeling alive with love inside, for that is what the inner child gives us. Yes, a woman feels alive during pregnancy, but if the life she feels is that of a child other than her own, the feeling will pass after birth and not return until the next pregnancy.
It is only when we feel pregnant with love for ourselves that we feel really alive and know why Mona Lisa smiles.
Women need to be pregnant, and men need to be pregnant. There is no other way of being in touch once again with our whole nature. There is no other way of re-membering.
For men, making a killing during the hunting season or in the battlefield or in the stock market doesn’t do it. Acquiring mounds of minerals and magnifying our net worth, or scoring bulls eyes with hoards of women, or being immersed in any other addiction does not fill the emptiness that only being pregnant and re-membering can fill. Having a son, and being filled with pride is no substitute for being pregnant with our own inner child and filled with love, for only when we are filled with love are we prepared to become lovers of our sons and peacemakers instead of warriors.
Tony Blair quoted Thornton Wilder* at the Memorial Service to the British people who died in the Twin Towers: “But soon we shall die and all memory of those five will have left the earth, and we ourselves shall be loved for a while and forgotten. But the love will have been enough; all those impulses of love return to the love that made them. Even memory is not necessary for love. There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.”
Let us all be aware and celebrate our life-long pregnancy, for love is the only survival, the only meaning. --Michael Murphy
*The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Thornton Wilder
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Michael's Musings -HAPPY NEW YEAR
This is the Year of Love, Loss, and Forgiveness
The year in which we begin to replace the prevailing atmosphere of hatred and fear with one of love and creativity. If we are to live our lives lovingly, we must start with ourselves and then spread the movement outwards and upwards. First, we must re-member. We must recover and treasure the three members of our nature, for only when these three parts are in balance are we capable of giving and receiving unconditional love
This is a picture of unconditional love. There is nothing at all between Alma and Ellen except love, and the love is expressed in The Gaze. The three parts of their Trinitarian nature are so apparent. We clearly see their Mortal selves, just as they are. We see their Souls: their feminine, witnessing nature that does not judge and does not expect, but simply gazes with love. We see the masculine nature of their Spirits: exuding energy and trust, creating a place of safety in which the Mortal in both Ellen and Alma can be in love. This is the picture of the Mortal, the Soul, and the Spirit together in harmony and love. This is what we are capable of, and this is what we must re-member, and this year 2008 will be our year of re-membrance. 2008 is such a wonderful year in which to re-member! The 2 reminds us of Soul and Spirit as do the 00, and the 8 seems to be a perfect symbol of Soul and Spirit interwoven with the Mortal! So let’s re-member together!
The year in which we begin to replace the prevailing atmosphere of hatred and fear with one of love and creativity. If we are to live our lives lovingly, we must start with ourselves and then spread the movement outwards and upwards. First, we must re-member. We must recover and treasure the three members of our nature, for only when these three parts are in balance are we capable of giving and receiving unconditional love
This is a picture of unconditional love. There is nothing at all between Alma and Ellen except love, and the love is expressed in The Gaze. The three parts of their Trinitarian nature are so apparent. We clearly see their Mortal selves, just as they are. We see their Souls: their feminine, witnessing nature that does not judge and does not expect, but simply gazes with love. We see the masculine nature of their Spirits: exuding energy and trust, creating a place of safety in which the Mortal in both Ellen and Alma can be in love. This is the picture of the Mortal, the Soul, and the Spirit together in harmony and love. This is what we are capable of, and this is what we must re-member, and this year 2008 will be our year of re-membrance. 2008 is such a wonderful year in which to re-member! The 2 reminds us of Soul and Spirit as do the 00, and the 8 seems to be a perfect symbol of Soul and Spirit interwoven with the Mortal! So let’s re-member together!
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