Robert Bly reminded me today to think in ways I’ve never thought before, to think of ways I’ve never, ever thought… before now.
I set a timer for five minutes and wrote, stream of consciousness style, and what came off the ends of my fingers is below. There is still so much more to discover.
Below my writing is a katch.me recording of my Periscope Show, Poetry & Writing Prompts so you may listen and write along with me. Let's go now, and consider - How will you think differently?
What are some things I have never thought?
Peas are tasty!
I almost wrote that a particular presidential candidate was thoughtful and considerate and then got scared to attach the actual name for fear people might think I was making that as a statement when I wasn’t, I was merely trying to think differently, in a way I had never ventured to think until right now.
It isn’t, after all, thinking something is right or wrong, it is simply trying on a different mode of thinking.
I watched Samuel’s face today, differently. I noticed the curl of his lip, wondered what it would be like for him to have his first kiss. Wondered, what it would be like for him to be accepted. He wants to go to a different school next year, he said, with a Gen Ed counselor because having a Special Ed counselor DOES mean something.
It is significant, he said, and chewed on his lip and I thought I would never know what it felt like to be labeled “Special Ed” and never really gave “General Ed” a thought until I advocated for him to be in those classes.
How do we change that? The meaning, the perception, the norm.
What are some things I have never thought before –
I have never thought I deserved to have a pink room. Perhaps that’s why I haven’t quite gotten there with this redecorating project because somewhere in me I’ve thought, “My Mom never made a pink room for me so I obviously must not be meant to have a pink room even though for my entire life it is something I have wanted – girly girl pink and shabby chic and eyelet and a chair for sitting and reading and writing and just being and lots and lots of pillows.”
I’ve thought “I want a pink room!” I even have the paint. And I have never gotten beyond the thinking until, perhaps now, when I moved the bed and I swept the floor and I faced west, toward the sunset (even though there are no windows facing it and I cannot see it, I know it is there) and I said, “I will get this job done, this room will be pink and white and I will feel so blessed and holy and right. For once, I will think and it will happen.”
I’m not sure this is what Robert Bly thought when he wrote his poem, but it is what I am thinking now and that, my loves, is what matters. I’m not even going to end this with a “That is what matters, right?” because I am going to choose to trust myself without the need for external validation even in this five minute stream of consciousness writing exercise –and see how that translates.
Now.
Recent Comments