This week marked the first day of fall, the International Day of Peace and me putting both of my feet in the sand and my body in Mama Ocean.
In honor of all three of these, I offer a piece of art, a poem and a song and an invitation to your own Peace. Fall. Rest.
Our days are really just a series of up and down. Just like waves, it is happening all the time. The transition out of the boot didn’t go seamlessly. We got to boat into the sea marshes with the herons. I wasn’t able to bike. Our campground neighbors lent us their canoe for exploring the bay. Up and down. Up and down.
As Pema Chodron reminds us, “pain is not a punishment and pleasure is not a reward.” In honor of the rise and fall and up and down and pleasure and pain, here is a piece of art, a poem and a song:
Inspired by the oak leaves that started falling on our deck recently … and the new art supplies I’ve been experimenting with! (Available as a print and cards in my online shop and at Cville Arts on the downtown mall in Charlottesville.)
Trough by Judy Sorum Brown
There is a trough in waves,
A low spot
Where horizon disappears
And only sky
And water
Are our company.
And there we lose our way
Unless
We rest, knowing the wave will bring us
To its crest again.
There we may drown
If we let fear
Hold us within its grip and shake us
Side to side.
And leave us flailing, torn, disoriented.
But if we rest there
In the trough,
Are silent,
Being with
The low part of the wave,
Keeping
Our energy and
Noticing the shape of things,
The flow,
Then time alone
Will bring us to another
Place
Where we can see
Horizon, see the land again,
Regain our sense
Of where
We are,
And where we need to swim.
Rise & Fall by Craig David (feat. Sting)
In the midst of it all may you experience PeaceFall Rest today.