Outside Wellness

Poem // Meditation

You know your way: Your body is the map, your heart the container to bring along all you need for the journey ahead. 

We rise to mountain tops and we fall into valleys. The shadows leave what is true, if we stay a while. But we don’t, we seek the temporary light in the valley. Cover up the dark. Run away. We leave and we return, again and again. Wishing to be on the ascent.

To feel deeply is to know life. To hurt is to taste life. To grieve is to touch life only for a moment, and then let her go.

The sun shines in the day, the moon and stars guide you by night. You are safe. You are protected. But this will hurt.

We must be here, to be there. The valley has much to teach us, blessings of skin and sand and sage. Stay here a while, but leave the weight. Receive your rest. And when it is time, take up your things and go softly.

3 Journaling Prompts:

1. If you could time-travel to 2019, what advice would you give to yourself or others? How can you still share or receive this advice now?
2. When was a time that you sat with your discomfort instead of distracting yourself? What was it like?
3. Who is a person that is going through a challenging season that you can have more compassion for? What does your compassion for them look like?

—E