view from my room

I pray to the birds because I believe they will carry the messages of my heart upward. I pray to them because I believe in their existence, the way their songs begin and end each day... the invocations and benedictions of Earth. I pray to the birds because they remind me of what I love rather than what I fear. And at the end of my prayers, they teach me how to listen. ~ Terry Tempest Williams, Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

10th Anniversary Edition book cover

I lie in bed nursing my battered psyche and renegade body, feeling like such a failure for succumbing to COVID-19 so unexpectedly. This is a first for me - after years of careful dodging and concerned management I am just another casualty of this abominable pandemic.

I was supposed to be spending my time writing an article about our local island birds - for submission before I fly off to Bali for a sound healing workshop. Instead, I loll around in a daze - my fevered brain pounding savagely, eyes hot and bleary, unable to focus.

revoking permission

Standing revealed in a moment of clarity
surprised
stunned

Revelation appears in a torrent of torment
recalling
replaying

Apparently this matters much in my world
revealing
resonance

In the center of my circle
complete
conscious

A voice steadily nurtured
vehemently
validates

A L L that is

waiting to go on | David Whyte

…It must be

we are waiting
for the perfect moment.
It must be
under all the struggle
we want to go on.
It must be,
that deep
down
we are creatures
getting ready
for when we are needed.