If you want a safer world,
save something, anything.
If you want a loving world,
love someone, anyone.
If you want a peaceful world,
make peace somewhere, anywhere.
If you want a better world,
be better in your world.
Ripples reach,
to be is to teach.
If you wish to make a difference,
practice what you seek.
by Donna Ashworth
I was on retreat recently. Retreats have their own alchemy. Here I’d like to share with you a strand of the alchemy I felt on this particular retreat, in relation to the shift so clearly articulated in this poem by Scottish poet Donna Ashworth.
As I participated, I watched as the parts of me that endlessly seek to ‘get’ kept taking up airtime in my head. There were monologues about the project to be seen and approved of, about wanting to be ‘authorised’ to be SOMEONE, about being not just one of the crowd, but getting noticed! Of course, it’s uncomfortable to confess to these murky forces within me that I’d rather keep out of sight, but by doing so maybe I’m practicing the very shift Donna speaks of. Rather than hiding from my murky human foibles, I’m being the change. If you want more approval, approve of your own imperfect humanity, all of it!
So, I realised that all this kerfuffle in my head was a mirage, and rather than giving myself a talking to for it, just I dropped it every time I noticed it had crept back in. In this way I felt myself claiming my own ground. The spontaneously arising instructions I gave myself were again and again were – don’t seek to get, give. I found that this little mantra gave me so much resilience and ease. It meant that what others did or said didn’t need to weigh on me so much. My own ground is what I have, make the most of it, was what I felt. I took the risk of claiming my ground and in doing so felt that some of the veils between me and the present moment lifted, and a natural wholehearted participation in life arose.
‘Practice what you seek’ – such great advice.
Would you like to find a little instruction to yourself, based on Donna’s formula?
Ps. If you’d like to explore in depth how poetry can bring insight, joy and meaning through mindfulness come along to our next 6 week Mindfulness Meets Mystical Poetry course starting on the 4 th November. And if you’re inspired to do retreat, how about joining our membership and coming along to the online weekends that are included. The next Membership Weekend is 16 – 18 October and will be filled with inspiring teachings and practice opportunities all guided by highly experienced teachers Alan Hughes and Tina Gilbert.