When You Are Done Fighting
Making your heart a home for beauty
I have done my time Fighting the wars of the world And in those tours of duty I have been injured by the Explosions of disillusionment And been bruised up by falling Out of the guard towers of righteousness Now the wars still rage But I have learned to come home No longer seduced By promises of glory Of “changing the world” More humbled now More comfortable In all I cannot truly be sure of I serve a different cause now Now I step outside And bless the coming Of each new day I notice the birds So intimately that I know them before I see them Boughs of cedar Wave thier gentle hello And I am held by the exquisite blue of the sky Like the skirt of the great mother herself Enfolding us “Don’t miss this” I say to myself “Please, don’t miss this” And I open my heart a little wider This heart that once Only knew how to grieve And how to fear How to numb out with overwhelm While she was busy fighting For all those good causes Is now a home for beauty And cracks open with tears and smiles At the slightest provocation By all this magnificence So go ahead, Tell me I’m the one With my head in the sand
With Love,
Olivia
Redirecting energy from proving and defending toward noticing and receiving is its own evolution. The image of recognizing birds before you see them captures what it means to live attuned instead of armored. Letting your heart soften after years of bracing is not avoidance; it’s integration. Sometimes tending to beauty is the most radical choice available.
Wonderful poem Olivia. It reminded me of what J.Krishnamurti used to say about the cause of war. That it's a collective result of our everyday activities, or something like that. His philosophy often washed over me, I didn't always understand what he was saying when I was reading his words. But you poem seems to have the same message to me.