Member-only story
Trying to Stand Still
A poem
How do we hold ourselves still in the moment
Tether ourselves to our bodies and surrender to our senses
How do we lie down on the warm grass of summer and let the sunlight soak our skin
Absorbing the warmth deep down into our bones so we can hold it there, a whispered promise of the cold to come
How can we experience every caress of the wind
It’s touch that of a lover, to our skin, our hair, our very souls as it carries away our sighs and leaves behind a glimpse of peace
How do we stay right here
Not flying forward into all the tomorrows
Or drifting backwards, replaying different moments, different caresses
How do we stay with ourselves
Resisting the pull of other people’s dreams and desires
Other people’s ideas of who and what we should be
How do we stay in this body
Feeling
Everything
Not hiding inside our minds, inside the deception of curated thoughts
I long to lay here
Breathing quietly, deeply
Knowing only this
Won’t you teach me how.
With the busyness of our culture, and the relentless demands on our time and attention, it is all too easy for life to feel like something that happens to us. Something we have little control over. The preciousness of each moment is something I find myself viewing from a distance at times, as though there is a windowpane between us.
There are days which slow down, and I capture dozens of moments where I feel my body and my breath, and I am awed by the simple beauty of existing. In those brief and wonderful moments everything expands and while I know I cannot live there, I would dearly love to visit more often.
