Notice the Helpers

There are so many different helpers showing up in our world today. It is truly inspiring. I am especially grateful to the healthcare workers, first responders, people working to make food available to all, and everyone who makes it possible for the rest of us to stay safe at home.

Notice the Helpers

I want to point out two of the helpers to you today.

1. Elizabeth Gilbert has posted beautiful short talk on the InsightTimer meditation app called “Facing Fear With Compassion.” InsightTimer is the app I use every day for meditating and it’s free. I listened to this yesterday and it is lovely.
2. Sounds True is offering free access to a special care package of digital tools and teachings, “Resilience in Challenging Times.”

And here is a poem by my favorite poet, Mary Oliver that feels just right to me today.

Wage Peace
Wage peace with your breath.
Breathe in firemen and rubble,
breathe out whole buildings and flocks of red wing
blackbirds.
Breathe in terrorists
and breathe out sleeping children and freshly mown fields.
Breathe in confusion
and breathe out maple trees.
Breathe in the fallen
and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.
Wage peace with your listening:
hear sirens, pray loud.
Remember your tools:
flower seeds, clothespins, clean rivers.
Make soup.
Play music,
learn the word thank you in three languages.
Learn to knit, and make a hat.
Think of chaos as dancing raspberries,
imagine grief as the out breath of beauty
or the gesture of fish.
Swim for the other side.
Wage peace.
Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious.
Have a cup of tea and rejoice.
Act as if armistice has already arrived.
Don’t wait another minute.

    — Mary Oliver

My cup of tea on my desk this morning.