The Quiet Giants

People today know how valuable "down-time" is. Doesn't matter what you do for a living, life is pretty much lived in the fast lane. I'm sure there are a few saintly souls out there that have learned how to manage it all beautifully. I don't happen to be one of them. Knowing my constant quest for inner peace, a beautiful friend gave me this. I'm not a tree hugger, but I'm thinking of becoming one...

Trees
by Howard Nemerov

To be a giant and keep quiet about it,
To stay in one's own place;
To stand for the constant presence of process
And always to seem the same;
To be steady as a rock and always trembling,
Having the hard appearance of death
With the soft, fluent nature of growth,
One's Being deceptively armored,
One's Becoming deceptively vulnerable; (italics added)
To be so tough, and take the light so well,
Freely providing forbidden knowledge
Of so many things about heaven and earth
For which we should otherwise have no word-
Poems or people are rarely so lovely,
And even when they have great qualities
They tend to tell you rather than exemplify
What they believe themselves to be about,
While from the moving silence of trees,
Whether in storm or calm, in leaf and naked,
Night or day, we draw conclusions of our own,
Sustaining and unnoticed as our breath,
And perilous also- though there has never been
A critical tree- about the nature of things.

Seriously? Seriously.

In my high school writing class, Mrs. So-and-So always swore that writing could be fun. "But you have to focus," she used to drone. "Follow the rules!...Be SERIOUS about your writing!!!!"

Apparently, I finally learned this lesson...

Peace, baby.

Up early today. You know those nights when you wake early and thoughts swirl in your head like wind whipping snow across the plains in a winter storm? Unfettered, uncontrollable, wild. They're the kind of thoughts that make you wonder WHY you ever decided to do whatever it is you're doing- like raising children... or even getting married! or taking the job/career path you have. In the end, you know you made the best decision under the circumstances, but however are you going to endure the... tension?, monotony?, commitment?, pain? of what is to come.

How many books have I bought and discarded that vowed to solve my problems? Whatever it is that calls your name in the wee hours, you have no choice but to answer. It doesn't stand at the door and knock--like you were told Jesus does (if you grew up in Sunday school). It is not a gentleman. It is a bully.

Perhaps the most powerful bully we will ever encounter is the one that has no physical body -- only a voice. We only learn to make peace with it or take drugs to control it. There are no unique beings that haven’t been affected by it, only those who have chosen to deny it or look the other way. Few, if any, of us can wrestle this bully alone.

Sometimes the most difficult problems are solved with the simplest of solutions. If you haven’t done this already, try entering into an open, frank, non-judgmental relationship with a trust-deserving friend. And when you see those peace signs from the 60's that are so popular (and timely!) again... think of non-judgment as her sister. Peace, baby.